Design Study of a Nuclear-Electric Transport Vehicle for Ice Giant Missions
Nuclear-electric propulsion, in which a nuclear reactor is used to power high specific-impulse ion thrusters for propulsion, is a promising method for such applications as missions to the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, identified as targets of high science value in the most recent NASA Decadal Survey of Planetary Science. Until recently, however, this has required a lightweight space nuclear power system that has yet to be designed. NASA has recently been developing the “Kilopower” nuclear reactor as a power source for future exploration missions, with a 1-kW prototype recently tested under the KRUSTY program. We utilized a next-generation Kilopower reactor to design a transportation system for missions to the ice giant planets. The mission objectives were to carry a payload of 1164 kg, comprising a lander/hopper vehicle to be delivered to explore the moon or moons of the target ice giant, along with atmospheric probes to drop into the atmosphere, plus 188 kg of science instrumentation on the spacecraft itself.