That Time NASA Tried to Make a Nuclear-Powered Rocket

This month's Pin of the Month is dedicated to the NERVA program. During the Space Race, NASA designed and tested a rocket engine fueled in part by nuclear fission. And it went so well (minus the funding cuts) that the prospect of a nuclear-powered rocket keeps circling back around.

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[DemPilafian]

Pretty much everything we are doing in space today was thought about and researched in the 50s and 60s. NASA published piles of papers back in the 50s and 60s covering a wide range of ambitious (even crazy) ideas for space exploration.

[williamfrazier]

This episode brought back memories. I was a summer graduate student employee at Los Alamos in '68, '69, and '70. I was doing after test computer analysis support for Rover.

[jetjazz]

The planets were aligned in such a way that it'll still be another 50 years before a window like that opens again, so I'd say the voyager probe was a good investment...

[RGF]

Actually the thrust provided to a rocket by the exhaust exiting the back at a high speed is due to the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Momentum is mass times velocity. The total momentum of the many very low mass exhaust particles exiting the rocket nozzle at a very high velocity backwards must be balanced by the forward momentum of the massive rocket moving at a lower velocity. The heat of the onboard nuclear fission reactor makes the LH2 expand rapidly and exit the rocket at a very high speed, producing a substantial momentum rearwards, even if the individual hydrogen molecules have small mass. But the sum of their momentum is what pushes the more massive rocket forward.

[mindlessmrawesome]

It's a good idea for space travel, not so good for getting stuff to orbit

[samwill]

Harnessing explosions is when all the best science gets done

[xrysoryba]

The first sci-fi book I ever read, way back in 1954, was Rocket Ship Galileo by Heinlein, written in 1947. A bunch of teenagers built a nuclear powered rocket ship and flew to the moon and back.

[odinallfarther]

How come you did not mention Dyson and the Orion project with its external nuclear combustion engine .

[Frostfly]

Rockets are Controlled low explosives, deflagrations. High explosives are Detonations. (see Rotational Detonation engine)

[queens.dee.]

Always nice to see Rose. And a cool topic too!

[AndieBlack]

The NERVA program had two distinct types of nuclear propulsion...one had fuel moving directly thru the inner core of a reactor, heating it up to then unheard of temperatures, the second type had the fuel traversing thru a heat-exchanger type system...while less efficient, it was thought (correctly) as a "safer" option. The first test running fuel directly thru the reactor had catastrophic results...the high velocity fuels traversing thru the core wound up breaking up the super-heated Uranium fuel rods & spitting the bits & pieces of extremely radioactive material thru the exhaust nozzles. The entire test site was completely & savagely contaminated with lethal levels of radiation....think Chernobyl reactor with its chunks of glowing ultra radioactive uranium bits scattered everywhere.

[felonious_c]

So glad that global interest in space exploration is taking off again! 🤩🚀✨⭐

[BeCurieUs]

Instantly got that pin! Couple of my friends worked on the modern nuclear rocket programs, including just regular old space reactor stuff (KRUSTY)

[addictionsucks]

I'm excited to see where they go with it. I think it may be what finally gets us to Mars and back.

[JamesGMunn]

No mention of the current DARPA DRACO program with NASA support? They are working on building the first NTR to test in space! Some exciting changes from the old NERVA program include non-weapons grade enrichment for the fuel, and carbon/carbide moderation help.

[katbairwell]

Gosh I do love when Rose presents, her voice is perfect for my particular hearing loss, so I find her content extra enjoyable! Thank you Rose!

[johnmillerpere_grin]

SciShow's couple latest vids seem to be closely related to space exploration, which I'm not really surprised by because I bet the scientific community is abuzz with NASA making more trips to the moon.

[headwreak]

I wonder if the NERVA project also prototyped S2 Engines. :]

[killernat]

All rockets will need to use some kind of rocket to get out of the atmosphere, nuclear releases energy a lot slower than burning fuel, unless you make a bomb, but once you’ve done that nuclear is the best weight to power ratio

[bhami]

I'd like to hear more details, particularly re: how can you possibly create a light-weight nuclear reactor, when you need major radiation and thermal shielding?