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Nuclear reactors have actually been launched into space multiple times [0][1]. Note, however, that their power output was on the order of a few kilowatts. [0]
by msl 10y ago
Nuclear reactors have actually been launched into space multiple times [0][1]. Note, however, that their power output was on the order of a few kilowatts.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-A
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOPAZ_nuclear_reactor
- CydeWeys 10y agoWow, that's awesome. I hadn't realized. Unfortunately those systems were fraught with problems (that persist to this day in their orbital debris), but they flew and they worked. Looking at the power generation capacity of those reactors vs their mass, however, they weren't even that much better than plutonium RTGs! The TOPAZ generated 5 kW using a 320 kg reactor, and was only good for five years. That's 15.6 W/kg. Meanwhile, the standard RTG design we've been using in recent space probes, including New Horizons, generates 300 W at 57 kg, or 5.3 W/kg, but the half-life is a long 87.7 years and the system doesn't suffer the kind of wear problems that a nuclear reactor does, so the total lifetime energy output is substantially greater. This would matter for interstellar probes with near-present levels of technology, assuming a working emdrive but nothing else.