Photo: Deutsche Welle/DARPA / copyright
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), of the United States Department of Defense, is ready to take the next step in the development of a nuclear rocket to help monitor and enable time-critical missions across vast distances in cislunar space, Earth-Moon space, an area it has deemed a high strategic priority.
DARPA announced on May 4 that it is seeking proposals for the second and third phases of its Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, which encompasses the design, manufacture and assembly of nuclear thermal rocket engines.
The objective is to perform a flight demonstration in space of nuclear thermal propulsion in the fiscal year 2026, according to the same agency in a press release.
“These propulsion capabilities allowed They will help the United States enhance its interests in space and expand the possibilities of NASA’s long-duration human spaceflight missions,” DARPA officials said.
DRACO is seeking proposals to design+build a nuclear thermal rocket engine, enhancing maneuverability in #cislunar space. Also: potential for more efficient, faster, smaller propulsion systems for long-duration #spaceflight. In-space demo planned in FY26. https://t.co/aM54WIPlGa pic.twitter. com/ZBmqrwod6e
— DARPA (@DARPA) May 4, 2022
Second and third phase of the DRACO program
The first phase of the program focused on the preliminary designs of the rocket engine reactor and in a conceptual orbiting demonstration system. The second phase will complete the designs of a demonstration system and the validation of a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTR) flight engine for use in the Earth-Moon space, while the third phase will build the demonstration system to carry out a flight test in orbit at full power and the execution of said test.
The agency clarified that its interest in the technology lies in that nuclear thermal propulsion, compared to electric propulsion systems, achieves a high thrust-to-weight ratio, about 10.000 times higher. On the other hand, compared to traditional chemical propulsion, they have an efficiency between two and five times higher, using faster and smaller systems than electric and chemical ones, respectively.
Nuclear thermal propulsion for missions to Mars
In addition to enable time-critical missions over vast distances in cislunar space, NASA would also be interested in nuclear thermal propulsion for its missions to Mars for its potential to reach the Red Planet in half the time of the current six to possible nine months with current propulsion systems, as reported by Space.com.
“The United States uses maneuver to maintain advantages in the land, sea and aerial. However, maneuvering is more difficult in space due to propulsion system limitations,” said Commander Nathan Greiner, program manager in DARPA’s Office of Tactical Technology.
“To maintain technological superiority in space, the United States needs state-of-the-art propulsion technology that the DRACO program will provide,” he added.
Edited by Felipe Espinosa Wang.