WASHINGTON \u2014 NASA\u2019s new exploration strategy includes the rapid development of a nuclear-powered mission to Mars in 2028, leveraging hardware originally built for the lunar Gateway.<\/p>\n
As part of the agency\u2019s \u201cIgnition\u201d event<\/a> March 24, NASA announced a mission called Space Reactor 1 (SR-1) Freedom. That spacecraft, launching at the end of 2028, would use a nuclear electric propulsion system to go to Mars.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter decades of study and millions spent on concepts that have never left Earth, America will finally get underway on nuclear power in space,\u201d NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at the event.<\/p>\n SR-1 Freedom will use a nuclear reactor that NASA plans to develop, generating 20 kilowatts of electrical power using high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The reactor will be placed at one end of a truss to protect spacecraft electronics from the radiation it produces.<\/p>\n At the other end of the truss will be the Power and Propulsion Element, or PPE, that NASA had planned to use on the Gateway. During the event, NASA announced it no longer planned to develop the Gateway, directing funding and capabilities from the Gateway to a lunar base.<\/p>\n PPE, being built by Lanteris Space Systems, was originally designed to provide both power and electric propulsion for the Gateway. It will be adapted to become the electric propulsion system for SR-1 Freedom, using power from the reactor.<\/p>\n \u201cPPE gives us a huge leg up. That\u2019s the only thing that makes this achievable,\u201d Steve Sinacore, program executive for NASA\u2019s Fission Surface Power program, said in an interview. \u201cThat\u2019s a very capable spacecraft bus that is going to be adaptable.\u201d<\/p>\n Between the reactor and the PPE will be radiators for heat rejection from the reactor. The spacecraft will have some solar arrays to provide additional power, particularly immediately after launch, before the reactor is activated.<\/p>\n In his presentation at Ignition, Sinacore described SR-1 as a \u201cpathfinder\u201d for space nuclear power and propulsion, an effort that has made little progress for decades despite multiple efforts that have spent a combined $20 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of an operational space nuclear reactor is not a technology problem. It\u2019s an execution problem,\u201d he said. He cited four \u201cfailure modes\u201d for past projects, including a lack of sustained mission pull for the technology, overly ambitious projects, unrealistic timelines and fragmented leadership. Those factors mirror an assessment published by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) last summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSR-1 Freedom is designed to break every one of those patterns,\u201d he said, with the demand for the technology for a Mars mission, a reactor that is relatively small, a firm timeline to meet the Mars launch window and clear leadership by NASA.<\/p>\n