US military gives Lockheed Martin $33.7 million to develop nuclear spacecraft::The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory just awarded $33.7 million to Lockheed Martin to advance the development of space nuclear propulsion and power tech.
US military gives Lockheed Martin $33.7 million to develop nuclear spacecraft::The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory just awarded $33.7 million to Lockheed Martin to advance the development of space nuclear propulsion and power tech.
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The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded $33.7 million to Lockheed Martin as part of the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-Orbit Nuclear (JETSON) effort to “mature high-power nuclear electric power and propulsion technologies and spacecraft design.”
“Nuclear fission development for space applications is key to introducing technologies that could dramatically change how we move and explore in the vastness of space,” Barry Miles, JETSON program manager and principal investigator at Lockheed Martin, said in a statement.
“From high-power electrical subsystem and electric propulsion to nuclear thermal propulsion or fission surface power, Lockheed Martin is focused on developing these systems with our important government agencies and industry partners,” Miles added.
In addition, Westinghouse Government Services, based in South Carolina, received a contract to continue research into utilizing high-power nuclear fission systems in spacecraft.
In July, NASA and the U.S. military chose the aerospace giant to develop and launch a spacecraft to test nuclear thermal propulsion in space.
The project, known as DRACO (“Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations”), could feature a propulsion system that’s a number of times more efficient than traditional chemical methods.
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