Heatpipe Power System (HPS) reactors are compact fast reactors producing up to 100 kWe for about ten years to power a spacecraft or planetary surface vehicle. It is very efficient, with 99% conversion of electric to kinetic energy. The system works most efficiently at low thrust (which can be sustained), with small plasma flow, but high thrust operation is possible. Research for one version, the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), draws on that for magnetically-confined fusion power (tokamak) for electricity generation, but here the plasma is deliberately leaked to give thrust. Superconducting magnetic cells ionize hydrogen or xenon, heat it to extremely high temperatures (millions ☌), accelerate it and expel it at very high velocity (e.g. However, attention is now turning to nuclear electric systems, where nuclear reactors are a heat source for electric ion drives expelling plasma out of a nozzle to propel spacecraft already in space. Compared with nuclear electric plasma systems, these have much more thrust for shorter periods and can be used for launches and landings. Bimodal versions will run electrical systems on board a spacecraft, including powerful radars, as well as providing propulsion. This is more efficient than chemical reactions. The hot gas (about 2500☌) is expelled through a nozzle to give thrust (which may be augmented by injection of liquid oxygen into the supersonic hydrogen exhaust). Nuclear fission heats a hydrogen propellant, which is stored as liquid in cooled tanks. Ian Hore-Lacy, in Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century, 2007 Fission Systems – Propulsionįor spacecraft propulsion, once launched, some experience has been gained with nuclear thermal propulsion systems (NTR).
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