Gerrish, Harold P.

Houts, Michael G.

Johnson, Charles L.

Rodriguez, Mitchell A.

NASA Technical Reports Server

• Imagine Cassini class mission at Uranus or 
Neptune
•Curiosity class rover possible on Triton
•Cut trip times
Why NTP?
On-going Work
How best to use NTP?
Other Future Possibilities?
NTP SLS Combination Provides New Capability for 
Science at the Ice Giants and Beyond
+
SLS NTP
Configuration – SLS 1B (8.4-m fairing)
Ground Rules & Assumptions:
Direct flight to target planets
NTP engine (3.5 mT engine mass, 850 s Isp, 25,000 
lbf thrust, LH2 propellant)
All Earth Departures take place from a C3 = -10 
km2/s2
SLS to C3 = -10 km2/s2:  42.8 mt
Length in 62.7ft SLS fairing for S/C:  17.8 m
Falcon Heavy to C3 = -10 km2/s2:  15 mt
Length in 13.1m FH fairing for S/C:  <13 m
NTP is dropped off after departure burn
Captures at outer planets are into elliptical orbits w/ 
apoapses at moons' distances
Capture is done w/ storable prop (Isp = 320 sec)
SLS + SRM comparison case done with a STAR 
63F-derived motor (Isp = 295 sec)
The robustness supported by NTP’s higher performance enables 
programmatic flexibility and increases probability of mission success 
Faster
Fa
rt
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r
The use of LEU reduces cost, lowers the risk and should 
dramatically decrease the regulatory burden.
Fission products produced in one week 
at a LEU university research reactor = 1 
entire Roundtrip Mars mission using NTP
Current NTP systems can 
be designed to use Low 
Enriched Uranium (LEU) 
with minimal (or no) 
impact on performance.
Past NTP systems used 
Highly Enriched Uranium 
(HEU) requiring maximum 
security
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19
The goal of current 
NTP project is to 
determine the 
feasibility and 
affordability of a Low 
Enriched Uranium 
(LEU)-based NTP 
engine with solid 
cost and schedule 
confidence.
“Specific investments include 
development of …. and rapid 
transit nuclear thermal 
propulsion technology utilizing 
low-enriched uranium that could 
potentially provide 20 percent 
shorter travel time to Mars while
substantially improving mission 
flexibility.”
•Using NTP for braking at mission destination using advancements in 
Cryogenic Fluid Management
•NTP reactor providing multiple kWe electric power for entire mission
•Other potential users showing interest
Current Partners with the NTP Project
Project Lead
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180001507 2019-08-30T12:24:11+00:00Z


Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) and Power A New Capability for Outer Planet Science and Exploration

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