Robotic planetary science missions enabled with small NTR engine/stage technologies

Abstract

The high specific impulse (Isp) and engine thrust‐to‐weight ratio of liquid hydrogen (LH2)‐cooled nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engines makes them ideal for upper stage applications to difficult robotic planetary science missions. A small 15 thousand pound force (klbf) NTR engine using a uranium‐niobium ‘‘ternary carbide’’ fuel (Isp ∼960 seconds at ∼3025 K) developed in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is examined and its use on an expendable injection stage is shown to provide major increases in payload delivered to the outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto). Using a single ‘‘Titan IV‐class’’ launch vehicle, with a lift capability to low earth orbit (LEO) of ∼20 metric tons (t), an expendable NTR upper stage can inject two Pluto ‘‘Fast Flyby’’ spacecraft (PFF/SC) plus support equipment—combined mass of ∼508 kg—on high energy, ‘‘6.5–9.2 year’’ direct trajectory missions to Pluto. A conventional chemical propulsion mission would use a liquid oxygen (LOX/LH2 ‘‘Centaur’’ upper stage and two solid rocket ‘‘kick motors’’ to inject a single PFF/SC on the same Titan IV launch vehicle.For follow on Pluto missions, the NTR injection stage would utilize a Jupiter ‘‘gravity assist’’ (JGA) maneuver to launch a LOX/liquid methane (CH4) capture stage (Isp ∼375 seconds) and a Pluto ‘‘orbiter’’ spacecraft weighting between ∼167–312 kg—with chemical propulsion, a Pluto orbiter missin is not a viable option because of inadequate delivered mass. Using a ‘‘standardized’’ NTR injection stage and the same single Titan IV launch scenario, ‘‘direct flight’’ (no gravity assist) orbiter missions to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are also enabled with transit times of 2.3, 6.6, and 12.6 years, respectively. Injected mass includes a storable, nitrogen tetroxide/monomethyl hydrazine (N2O4/MMH) capture stage (Isp ∼330 seconds and orbiter payloads 340 to 820% larger than that achievable using a LOX/LH2‐fueled injection stage. The paper discusses NTR technology and mission characteristics, shows NTR stage and payload accommodations within the 26.2 m long Titan IV payload fairing, and discusses NTR stage performance as a function of assumed cryogenic tank technology.