energia: Fission-fragment rocket

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The fission-fragment rocket is a rocket engine design that directly harnesses hot nuclear fission products for thrust, as opposed to using a separate fluid as working mass. The design can, in theory, produce very high specific impulse while still being well within the abilities of current technologies.

Evidence: 57 • authority: 72

A pulsed nuclear thermal rocket is a type of nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) concept developed at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, and presented at the 2016 AIAA/SAE/ASEE Propulsion Conference for thrust and specific impulse (Isp) amplification in a conventional nuclear thermal rocket. The pulsed nuclear thermal rocket is a bimodal rocket able to work in a stationary (at constant nominal power as in a conventional NTR), and as well as a pulsed mode as a TRIGA-like reactor, making possible the production of high power and an intensive neutron flux in short time intervals. In contrast to nuclear reactors where velocities of the coolant are no larger than a few meters per second an…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 72

A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that generates thrust from a quasi-neutral plasma. This is in contrast with ion thruster engines, which generate thrust through extracting an ion current from the plasma source, which is then accelerated to high velocities using grids of anodes. These exist in many forms (see electric propulsion). However, in the scientific literature, the term "plasma thruster" sometimes encompasses thrusters usually designated as "ion engines". Plasma thrusters do not typically use high voltage grids or anodes/cathodes to accelerate the charged particles in the plasma, but rather use currents and potentials that are generated internally to accele…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 80

Pulsed plasma rocket- developing a dynamic fission process for high specific impulse and high thrust propulsion

Evidence: 38 • authority: 72

A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because they have reasonably high density and their combustion products have high specific impulse (Isp). This allows the volume of the propellant tanks to be relatively low.

Evidence: 38 • authority: 80

Solar-Powered Rocket Engine Optimized for High Specific Impulse

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A hybrid-propellant rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor that uses rocket propellants in two different phases: one solid and the other either gas or liquid. The hybrid rocket concept can be traced back to the early 1930s. Hybrid rockets avoid some of the disadvantages of solid rockets like the dangers of propellant handling, while also avoiding some disadvantages of liquid rockets like their mechanical complexity. Because it is difficult for the fuel and oxidizer to be mixed intimately (being different states of matter), hybrid rockets tend to fail more benignly than liquids or solids. Like liquid rocket engines, hybrid rocket motors can be shut down easily and the thrust is throttleable.…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Specific impulse (usually abbreviated as Isp) is a physical quantity defined as the ratio of change in momentum (impulse) to the mass used, usually fuel. It typically uses units of metres per second (a SI unit) or feet per second (in imperial units). It is equivalent to thrust (a force, in newtons or pounds) per mass flow rate (in kg/s or lbm/s). It serves as a measure of how efficiently an engine, such as a rocket or jet engine, generates thrust from propellant. Isp is the effective exhaust velocity used in the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation which calculates how much a vehicle's velocity can be changed with a given quantity of fuel. Normalized specific impulse is the ratio of specific impulse…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A fusion rocket is a theoretical design for a rocket driven by fusion propulsion, which could provide efficient and sustained acceleration in space without the need to carry a large fuel supply. The design requires fusion power technology beyond current capabilities and much larger and more complex rockets. Fusion nuclear pulse propulsion is one approach to using nuclear fusion energy to provide propulsion. Fusion's main advantage is its very high specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is the (likely) large mass of the reactor. A fusion rocket may produce less radiation than a fission rocket, reducing the shielding mass needed. The simplest way of building a fusion rocket is to use h…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A tripropellant rocket is a rocket that uses three propellants, as opposed to the more common bipropellant rocket or monopropellant rocket designs, which use two or one propellants, respectively. Tripropellant systems can be designed to have high specific impulse and have been investigated for single-stage-to-orbit designs. While tripropellant engines have been tested by Rocketdyne and NPO Energomash, no tripropellant rocket has been flown. There are two different kinds of tripropellant rockets. One is a rocket engine which mixes three separate streams of propellants, burning all three propellants simultaneously. The other kind of tripropellant rocket is one that uses one oxidizer but two f…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) is an electrothermal thruster under development for possible use in spacecraft propulsion. It uses radio waves to ionize and heat an inert propellant, forming a plasma, then a magnetic field to confine and accelerate the expanding plasma, generating thrust. It is a plasma propulsion engine, one of several types of spacecraft electric propulsion systems. The VASIMR method for heating plasma was originally developed during nuclear fusion research. VASIMR is intended to bridge the gap between high-thrust, low-specific-impulse chemical rockets and low-thrust, high-specific-impulse electric propulsion, but has not yet demonstrated high…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Peer Review Report For: Design of a High–Specific Impulse Gas-Core Nuclear Thermal Rocket [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]