Applications of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion to Lunar Architectures

Reynolds, Christopher B.; Horton, James F.; Joyner, Claude R.; Kokan, Timothy S.; Levack, Daniel J.

doi:10.2514/6.2019-4032

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 4 publications

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“…Nuclear powered space vehicles have been a technology of interest to the Atomic Energy Commission beginning in 1951 [1]. Research in this time period paved a roadmap for integrating nuclear power with propulsion technologies for in-space propulsion applications, a concept known as Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Coupled Approach to the Design Space Exploration of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems

Petitgenet

Roper

Krecicki

et al. 2020

AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2020 Forum

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Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) is identified as one of the preferred propulsion technologies for future manned missions to Mars and other interplanetary destinations. NTP systems can improve the returns and mitigate the risks of such missions by reducing travel time and improving payload capacity as compared to traditional chemical propulsion systems. Due to the complexity and tightly coupled nature of the nuclear reactor and surrounding NTP subsystems, the traditional decoupled approach to NTP system analysis is inadequate. A new approach is needed to enable a high-fidelity design space exploration exercise for NTP systems. The approach outlined in this paper will address an integrated model of the reactor and supporting subsystems. This model, along with the incorporation of Design of Experiments and Surrogate Modeling, will allow for the exploration of the performance of a large number of NTP system designs with respect to metrics such as specific impulse and thrust to weight ratio. The subsystems analysis is handled by Numerical Propulsion Systems Simulation (NPSS) while reactor modeling is conducted using various numerical codes. This paper proposes and demonstrates a coupled design space exploration approach for NTP systems and uses these findings to consider vehicle-level implications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Coupled Approach to the Design Space Exploration of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems

Petitgenet

Roper

Krecicki

et al. 2020

AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2020 Forum

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Time dependent full-core multiphysics analysis of nuclear thermal propulsion reactors

Krecicki,

Kotlyar

2023

Annals of Nuclear Energy

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Effects of solutes on thermodynamic properties of (TMZrU)C (TM = Ta, Y) medium-entropy carbides: a first-principles study

Liu,

Lu,

Wang

et al. 2023

J Mater Inf

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High entropy carbide ceramics have garnered significant interest as a novel class of ultra-high temperature and superhard metallic materials. In the present work, a comparative investigation was conducted for the first time on the stability, mechanical, and thermodynamic properties of two medium entropy carbides (MECs), (TaZrU)C and (YZrU)C, using high-throughput first-principles calculations. Additionally, data from groups IV and V transition metal monocarbides were employed for comparison. The temperature-dependent thermodynamic properties, including bulk modulus (B), constant volume/constant pressure heat capacity (Cv/Cp), Gibbs free energy, volume, entropy, and thermal conductivity, were evaluated using the Debye-Gruneisen model. The results demonstrate that (TaZrU)C and (YZrU)C exhibit similar trends in their thermodynamic properties, with (YZrU)C displaying slightly superior performance as the temperature rises. This work provides valuable insights into the design of innovative high entropy fuels, holding significant implications for the advancement of MEC ceramic fuels in advanced nuclear power systems and nuclear thermal propulsion systems.

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Applications of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion to Lunar Architectures

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

A Coupled Approach to the Design Space Exploration of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems

A Coupled Approach to the Design Space Exploration of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Systems

Time dependent full-core multiphysics analysis of nuclear thermal propulsion reactors

Effects of solutes on thermodynamic properties of (TMZrU)C (TM = Ta, Y) medium-entropy carbides: a first-principles study

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