Nuclear In Space – The NETS Meeting

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Tea NET Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. The Nuclear And Emerging Technologies For Space is an annual NASA, National Laboratories, industry, and academia to discuss space nuclear power and propulsion as safe and economic.

For future space missions, especially for establishing settlements on the Moon or Mars, we need new energy systems to power larger facilities and spacecraft.

So far, NASA has done so with unmanned spacecraft to remote planets. On January 1^st 2019, the nuclear powered New Horizon's spacecraft flew by the most distant object ever neared close – Ultima Thule, far beyond Pluto, in the region called the Kuiper Belt, outside the Solar System proper. It will continue on into the Oort Cloud, the outermost region of the Solar System, which will be left untouched by the Sun and planets, before it exits our Solar System completely.

The spacecraft could not have done so without nuclear energy. Solar energy does not work much beyond Mars and only in line-of-sight with the Sun. Chemical sources do not work for a long time and their cost is prohibitive on long missions.

We are here for you, and we are looking for more space and exploration and development, where we can discuss and exchange information in this area.

NETs fills this role. It is a topical meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), hosted by the Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology Division and the ANS Eastern Washington Section. Papers presented at the meeting can be seen here. Everything is discussed, from Nuclear Powered Cryobots that can access the oceans of Icy Planets like Europa, to Nuclear Thermal Rockets, to developing special composite and polymer materials.

Keynote speeches from astronaut and entrepreneur Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk, and John Kelly, president of the American Nuclear Society and the internship for the meeting.

As Dr. Christopher Morrison notesIt is essential that the global space market is $ 400 billion / year. Presently 72 different government space agencies are in existenceAvailable at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

These six include the& Nbsp;China National Space Administration& nbsp; (CNSA), the & nbsp;European Space Agency& nbsp; (ESA), the & nbsp;Indian Space Research Organization& nbsp; (ISRO), the & nbsp;Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency& nbsp; (JAXA), the & nbsp;National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA), and the& Nbsp;Russian Federal Space Agency& nbsp; (RFSA or Roscosmos).

Nuclear energy in space has come out of fashion over the decades. For the last 50 years, we have used radioisotope electric propulsion systems and radiothermal generators (RTGsto power long missions far from the Sun, like the Voyager missions to Jupiter and beyond, or the New Horizons mission to the outer Solar System. Pu-238 is the best isotope, emitting steady heat from natural radioactive decay by emitting alpha particles that thermocouples then convert to electricity. Its 88-year half-life the missions can be long in duration.

However, RTGs can not achieve the high-power density needed for large remote applications and is not enough to meet the kilowatt- and megawatt-scale power needs of human spaceflight and off-world bases.

The next big step is to provide power for human settlements. These will require kilowatt and megawatt power systems for life support, propulsion of large payloads, and off-world industry. While solar energy is in the air, it is necessary for long-term energy storage.

An ideal solution is a combination of both power sources, but the survival of a group of humans will require certainty and reliability of nuclear power. A recent analysis at MIT, corroborates this – we need more powerful, miniaturized nuclear engines to go farther and faster into space.

This is not new. NASA launched a nuclear fission system called SNAP-10A in 1965, and Russia launched over 30 fission-powered spacecraft during the Cold War. In addition, in the 1960's NASA successfully ground tested dozens of nuclear rockets in a program called Nerva.

More recently, NASA ground tested a tiny nuclear reactor That is perfect for powering a Mars or the Moon, fueling a large spacecraft to a distant star, or operating a mining operation in the asteroid belt.

Called the Kilopower Fission Power ProjectPower supply systems, or to be used in the field of electrical power, or see figure). It would provide greater data rate communications with a smaller antenna, something that is more important than one might think.

Traditional terrestrial nuclear reactor designs are big. A space reactor, with a power level in the kW range, would be a million times lower than most reactors on Earth. This translates to simplicity and low cost. For example, the Kilopower reactor is only the size of a roll of paper towels and the entire system with all of its components and shielding, is about the weight of a car.

Until recently, putting anything into the Earth is incredibly expensive. Any object orbiting the earth was worth its weight in 14 karat gold. The international space station is the most expensive object built in modern human history with a cost of 100 billion dollars to build. These costs are in the realm of governments.

But that is changing. Designing, building, and operating complex technology has never been easier in all of history. The manufacturing, materials, and computer codes are orders of magnitude better than they were in the 1960s. This has opened up the possibility of developing such capabilities as Blue Origin, SpaceX, and even smaller companies like Rocket Lab.

The space market, now about $ 400 billion / year, is set to grow to between $ 1 trillion and $ 4 trillion per year by 2040). Last year, the market for electricity in the United States was only $ 400 billion. So the economic push is great to evolve these systems. Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) and Elon Musk (SpaceX) started their companies with the mission of enabling millions of people to live and work in space. SpaceX launch vehicles have dropped the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 15, and that should continue to drop by another factor of 5.

For fission power systems, this is game changing. In the past, the launch cost was simply too much to achieve the critical mass requirements for colonization. What held back humanity from pursuing endeavors beyond Earth orbit was cost, and now that barrier has been lifted.

So the gateway to space has been opened in the 1990's. And nuclear energy is the power that will get us through that gate. When humans are ready to live and work in space, That nuclear power is the safest energy source on Earth does not hurt.

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Tea NETS meeting is wrapping up today at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. The Nuclear And Emerging Technologies For Space is an annual NASA, National Laboratories, industry, and academia to discuss space nuclear power and propulsion as safe and economic.

For future space missions, especially for establishing settlements on the Moon or Mars, we need new energy systems to power larger facilities and spacecraft.

So far, NASA has done so with unmanned spacecraft to remote planets. On January 1^st 2019, the nuclear powered New Horizon's spacecraft flew by the most distant object ever neared close – Ultima Thule, far beyond Pluto, in the region called the Kuiper Belt, outside the Solar System proper. It will continue on into the Oort Cloud, the outermost region of the Solar System, which will be left untouched by the Sun and planets, before it exits our Solar System completely.

The spacecraft could not have done so without nuclear energy. Solar energy does not work much beyond Mars and only in line-of-sight with the Sun. Chemical sources do not work for a long time and their cost is prohibitive on long missions.

We are here for you, and we are looking for more space and exploration and development, where we can discuss and exchange information in this area.

NETs fills this role. It is a topical meeting of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), hosted by the Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology Division and the ANS Eastern Washington Section. Papers presented at the meeting can be seen here. Everything is discussed, from Nuclear Powered Cryobots that can access the oceans of Icy Planets like Europa, to Nuclear Thermal Rockets, to developing special composite and polymer materials.

Keynote speeches from astronaut and entrepreneur Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk, and John Kelly, president of the American Nuclear Society and the internship for the meeting.

As Dr. Christopher Morrison notes, synergistic sharing of information is essential now that the global space market is $ 400 billion / year. Presently 72 different government space agencies are in existence, with only one of them having capabilities, and only having multiple capabilities, including the ability to deploy multiple satellites, deploy cryogenic rocket engines and operate space probes.

These six include the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA or Roscosmos).

Nuclear energy in space has come out of fashion over the decades. For the last 50 years, we have used radioisotope electric propulsion systems and radiothermal generators (RTGs) to power long missions far from the Sun, like the Voyager missions to Jupiter and beyond, or the New Horizons mission to the outer Solar System. Pu-238 is the best isotope, emitting steady heat from natural radioactive decay by emitting alpha particles that thermocouples then convert to electricity. Its 88-year half-life means the missions can be long in duration.

However, RTGs can not achieve the high-power density needed for large remote applications and is not enough to meet the kilowatt- and megawatt-scale power needs of human spaceflight and off-world bases.

The next big step is to provide power for human settlements. These will require kilowatt and megawatt power systems for life support, propulsion of large payloads, and off-world industry. While solar energy is in the air, it is necessary for long-term energy storage.

An ideal solution is a combination of both power sources, but the survival of a group of humans will require certainty and reliability of nuclear power. A recent analysis at MIT, corroborates this – we need more powerful, miniaturized nuclear engines to go farther and faster into space.

This is not new. NASA launched a nuclear fission system called SNAP-10A in 1965, and Russia launched over 30 fission-powered spacecraft during the Cold War. In addition, in the 1960's NASA successfully ground tested dozens of nuclear rockets in a program called NERVA.

More recently, NASA is testing a small molecule that is perfect for powering a colony on Mars or the Moon, fueling a large spacecraft to a distant star, or operating a mining operation in the asteroid belt.

Called the Kilopower Fission Power Project, which is designed to provide 1 to 10 kW of electrical power, and can be set in a coordinated manner, which can be used for more science instruments, or to power electric propulsion systems, or to support human exploration gold colonies on another planet (see figure). It would provide greater data rate communications with a smaller antenna, something that is more important than one might think.

Traditional terrestrial nuclear reactor designs are big. A space reactor, with a power level in the kW range, would be a million times lower than most reactors on Earth. This translates to simplicity and low cost. For example, the Kilopower reactor is only the size of a roll of paper towels and the entire system with all of its components and shielding, is about the weight of a car.

Until recently, putting anything into the Earth is incredibly expensive. Any object orbiting the earth was worth its weight in 14 karat gold. The international space station is the most expensive object built in modern human history with a cost of 100 billion dollars to build. These costs are in the realm of governments.

But that is changing. Designing, building, and operating complex technology has never been easier in all of history. The manufacturing, materials, and computer codes are orders of magnitude better than they were in the 1960s. Blue Origin, SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and even smaller companies such as Blue Origin, SpaceX, and even smaller companies like Rocket Lab.

The space market, now about $ 400 billion / year, is set to grow to between $ 1 trillion and $ 4 trillion per year by 2040). Last year, the market for electricity in the United States was only $ 400 billion. So the economic push is great to evolve these systems. Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) and Elon Musk (SpaceX) start their companies with the mission of enabling millions of people to live and work in space. SpaceX launch vehicles have dropped the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 15, and that should continue to drop by another factor of 5.

For fission power systems, this is game changing. In the past, the launch cost was simply too much to achieve the critical mass requirements for colonization. What held back humanity from pursuing endeavors beyond Earth orbit was cost, and now that barrier has been lifted.

So the gateway to space has been opened in the 1990's. And nuclear energy is the power that will get us through that gate. When humans are ready to live and work in space, That nuclear power is the safest source on Earth does not hurt.