![]() Numerous technological challenges still remain, however. Since they will be ionized due to the high energy of the reaction, they can then be handled magnetically and channeled to produce thrust. The atoms undergoing fission are at a temperature of millions of degrees, which is then spread out into the surrounding fuel, resulting in an overall temperature of a few thousand.īy physically arranging the fuel into very thin layers or particles, the fragments of a nuclear reaction can escape from the surface. The temperature of a conventional reactor design is the average temperature of the fuel, the vast majority of which is not reacting at any given instant. A rocket engine's efficiency is strongly related to the temperature of the exhausted working fluid, and in the case of the most advanced gas-core engines, it corresponds to a specific impulse of about 7000 s I sp. This limits the designs to temperatures that allow the reactor to remain whole, although clever design can increase this critical temperature into the tens of thousands of degrees. ![]() In traditional nuclear thermal rocket and related designs, the nuclear energy is generated in some form of reactor and used to heat a working fluid to generate thrust. The design can, in theory, produce very high specific impulse while still being well within the abilities of current technologies. ![]() The fission-fragment rocket is a rocket engine design that directly harnesses hot nuclear fission products for thrust, as opposed to using a separate fluid as working mass.
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