Nuclear propulsion technology drives submarines beneath the ocean and aircraft carriers across the sea, and now NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing a new Nuclear Thermal Propulsion system (NTP).
Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations
The new NTP system, being developed through a deal with DARPA and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS), is a technology intended to allow a rocket to operate in cislunar space, the area just outside of the Earth’s atmosphere just past the moon’s orbit.
“Nuclear propulsion provides greater propellant efficiency as compared with chemical rockets. It’s a potential technology for crew and cargo missions to Mars and science missions to the outer solar system, enabling faster and more robust missions in many cases,” a NASA statement from an earlier phase of the technologies’ development says.
Certainly this kind of propulsion breakthrough could introduce substantial tactical advantages from a military standpoint, to include an ability to perhaps more efficiently and successfully send and operate manned or unmanned vehicles beyond the earth’s atmosphere to conduct surveillance missions, missile defense, and connectivity with satellite systems.
The DARPA program is called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, and it is intended to engineer a rocket that operates effectively in cislunar space beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and even beyond, according to General Atomics senior officials.
