Atomic energy: The rosetta stone of space flight

Details Atomic energy: The rosetta stone of space flight Atomic energy: The rosetta stone of space flight

May 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994jbis...47..199d&link_type=abstract

British Interplanetary Society, Journal (ISSN 0007-094X), vol. 47, no. 5, p. 199-206

Computer Science

Histories, Nasa Programs, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Rocket Engines, Federal Budgets, Kiwi Reactors, Policies

Scientific paper

From 1955 to 1973, the United States had a nuclear rocket development program that had many potential missions, although never an assigned one, and an unparalleled record of technical achievement. Project Rover/NERVA, as it was called, never fully cleared the hurdles of the US political process and its future was considered annually by US Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. The program began at the two nuclear weapons laboratories, Los Alamos and Livermore, in 1955 with potential intercontinental ballistic missile missions in mind; but, as weapons designers were able to make weapons smaller and lighter, the need for a heavy lifting nuclear rocket disappeared. Sputnik increased interest in 1957, but President Kennedy accelerated the program in his lunar landing speech of 1961, giving it focus, direction and, most important, funding. Private industrial contractors were brought in to engineer the pioneering work done by Los Alamos on the Kiwi series of reactors. Aerojet General and Westinghouse developed a number of reactors in 1964-69 - NRX-A2, NRX-A3, NRX-EST, NRX-A5, NRX-A6, and XE - each of which was more successful than its predecessor. A decision now was needed on a flight engine program. Influenced by his close friend and political ally Senator Clinton P. Anderson, President Johnson approved the development of NERVA II in February 1967, a 200 - 250,000 -pound-thrust engine capable of a wide variety of space missions: lunar resupply, deep space, and manned planetary. The Saturn rocket was to carry the NERVA II to Earth orbit. Despite strong support from a pocket of influential Senators led by Anderson, Congress rebelled, arguing that this was the camel's nose in the tent for a manned Mars mission. That would cost $200 billion. NERVA II was killed. NERVA I, a 75,000 -pound-thrust engine, was the compromise. President Nixon was no friend of the space program, at least expensive manned space efforts. The big Saturn rocket programme was terminated, NASA was restricted to a starvation budget, and all hopes were placed on development of the space shuttle. In 1971, NASA pronounced the nuclear rocket's epitaph: NERVA needs the space shuttle, the shuttle doesn't need NERVA. Despite strong Congressional backing, NERVA was cancelled in 1972. A year later, all development work on nuclear rockets ceased.

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