The U.S. Department of Defense Innovation (DIU) has signed contracts with Ultra-Safe Nuclear Technologies and Avalanche Energy to demonstrate next-generation nuclear propulsion and power plants for small spacecraft. The amount of the contracts was not disclosed. The show in space is scheduled for 2027. The new engines will help the spacecraft make long maneuvering flights before returning to orbit the moon.

The United States has expressed the urgency of continuously monitoring the Earth’s orbit to and from the orbit of the moon for the country’s military and commercial missions and their allies. This is not about a possible military conflict, although it should always be kept in mind. There is a lot of space debris in this area that could threaten missions. Recently, something fell on the moon: a fragment of a Chinese rocket or an American rocket.

Long-term and complex maneuvers raids on chemical engines and modern power plants – plasma or ionic – are not very promising. You don’t particularly encounter “chemistry” as your fuel reserves are very limited and you can fly for long periods of time for “electricity”, but not fast. The maneuvers on the electric motors are also ungrateful – the train leaves much to be desired.

A breakthrough could be nuclear powered engines, which even the IAEA has acknowledged, and programs to develop such engines are already in place in the United States. The new contract promises to help build compact nuclear power plants for small satellites, which will be able to find missions in near and far space.

From Ultra Safe Nuclear, customers expect an isotope battery called EmberCore. The battery capacity is claimed to be 10 times greater than in the case of conventional plutonium batteries. Just a few kilograms of fuel will produce up to 1 million kWh of energy.

Avalanche Energy offers an Orbitron fusion-based Orbitron power plant. The installation will be compact and dual-purpose. The high-energy particles obtained by the thermonuclear reaction will generate heat to heat the working material and jet propulsion, as well as electricity for the operation of the spacecraft’s onboard systems.

Details of these projects remain closed. But in general, developers from all countries are going in one direction – without the development of nuclear technology, they cannot make long and long flights in space. Source