Nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) systems have the potential to provide a very effective transit mechanism to celestial bodies outside of the realm of solar power, yet the heavy power source and…

This federal contract award to Howe Industries LLC provides $495,066 in funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for research and development of nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) systems. The goal is to reduce the total mass of NEP systems to enable their use on smaller launch vehicles, thereby providing new opportunities for scientific payloads to be delivered throughout the solar system.

The major tasks include demonstrating performance of improved thermoelectric generators, improving computational models for predicting thermoelectric generator performance, optimizing a small nuclear reactor design to minimize mass and cost, and identifying mission details for a Europa cubesat mission. This effort supports NASA's priorities in developing low-mass NEP capabilities that could enable more cost-effective deep space exploration. The contract is not designated as a set-aside.

Nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) systems have the potential to provide a very effective transit mechanism to celestial bodies outside of the realm of solar power, yet the heavy power source and massive radiators required to justify a reactor core often push NEP spacecraft towards very large masses and major missions. If the total mass of an NEP system could be reduced to levels that were able to be launched on smaller vehicles, these devices could deliver scientific payloads to anywhere in the solar system. The major tasks in this phase will include: demonstrating performance of the improved ateg units. Improving the computational model for the ateg performance prediction so that new combinations of materials can be used in the future. Optimizing the spear reactor to minimize mass and cost. Identifying detailed trajectory and mission info for orbital insertion and cubesat orbits to gather data from europa plumes. Creating a low mass NEP system will open many new opportunities for research in the future. Using smaller rockets will provide flagship class results with much smaller missions. Additionally, the development of the ateg units and small reactors can provide power to other rovers, surface bases, satellites, or a number of other missions. Development of the spear probe will show that inexpensive, effective nuclear technologies can be achieved for future space exploration.