Pentagon ordered the creation of a nuclear rocket engine

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Pentagon-owned DARPA, which specializes in advanced defense developments, plans to launch a nuclear missile engine project in 2020. The new unit, according to the military, will increase the speed of spacecraft while minimizing the consumption of the working fluid. By the way, liquefied gas will be used as the latter. Which one is not specified, but presumably it will be liquid hydrogen.





With the name of the project, they didn’t become “smart” and dubbed it Reactor on a rocket. DARPA claims that such an engine could be used in spacecraft to move inside the lunar orbit.

According to information published by Aviation Week, the reactor used in ROAR will operate on HALEU-type uranium nuclear fuel. The content of U-235 will exceed 5%, but will be less than 20%. For comparison, weakly enriched uranium from 3% to 5% is used in reactors at conventional nuclear power plants, and highly enriched up to 90% at nuclear submarines.

Next year, research work should begin, and then the assembly of the installation demonstrator. About the deadlines for the completion of the Reactor on a rocket project, nothing is said.
4 comments
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  1. bratchanin3
    bratchanin3
    +1
    24 March 2019 10: 16
    The Americans decided to catch up with Russia. Uch, this is a recognition of his backlog. Well, a little pokimari, believing in their final victory. Oh, these Russians, all the raspberries spoil the Anglo-Saxons.
  2. shinobi
    shinobi
    +1
    25 March 2019 09: 23
    Oh, the Yankees are shouting! A direct pattern is well known: the higher the percentage of fissile material in a fuel rod, the smaller the size of the reactor. Well, uranium cannot be there in the indicated range, a reactor with the necessary efficiency will turn out no less than industrial.
  3. Ygm
    Ygm
    +1
    25 March 2019 10: 05
    I think everything is possible ... if only the Pentagon appeals to Hollywood, well, then they can do it in six months.
  4. Kirill Manzheev
    Kirill Manzheev
    +1
    April 11 2019 04: 31
    Flag in their hands. With such an engine, you can build a space fleet in lunar orbit and control all the satellites in space. Unfavorable satellites can be shot down. This is the American monopoly on space.