APOGEE STAFF
The U.S. military needs faster, more powerful, more versatile forms of propulsion to operate beyond Earth’s orbit, so the U.S. Department of Defense has turned to two companies developing promising nuclear technologies.
According to the website of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the goal is to launch the distinct prototypes designed by Ultra Safe Nuclear and Avalanche Energy in 2027. “Nuclear tech has traditionally been government-developed and -operated, but we have discovered a thriving ecosystem of commercial companies, including startups, innovating in space nuclear,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Ryan Weed, program manager for DIU’s Nuclear Advanced Propulsion and Power program.
Future military missions will extend into cislunar space — up to 240,000 miles away, 10 times farther than the Earth orbit where most space operations currently take place. This will demand more maneuverability and electrical power to allow for orbital changes, transfer between orbits and operations within solar shadows, in addition to other capabilities, DIU said. “Bottom line, chemical and solar-based systems won’t provide the power needed for future DOD missions,” Weed said. The DIU expects its nuclear propulsion program will influence how the U.S. employs space power overall, ushering in an era during which spacecraft can maneuver tactically in cislunar space.
Ultra Safe Nuclear will develop a concept for radioisotope-powered spacecraft that can travel at as fast as 6 miles per second, much faster than current small-spacecraft propulsion systems. The company will demonstrate a nuclear radioisotope battery called EmberCore, evaluating systems that can produce more than 1 million kilowatt-hours of energy using just a few pounds of nuclear fuels, according to its website. Radioisotope power sources have been used on space missions since 1961. These include the Apollo, Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and New Horizons space missions, as well as civil and military satellites, according to the industry group World Nuclear Association. Power is typically provided by converting the heat generated through the radioactive decay of the radioisotope plutonium-238, but Ultra Safe Nuclear instead adapts materials from the medical radioisotope industry. “We are scaling them up and incorporating electric propulsion into the system,” said Adam Schilffarth with Ultra Safe Nuclear. “We believe this combination will yield a spacecraft with unprecedented maneuverability and sun-independence.”