Representation of a DRACO spaceship by an artist.
DARPA
The Pentagon’s research and development group on Monday awarded a trio of companies with contracts to build and demonstrate a propulsion system based on a spacecraft in orbit in 2025.
General Atomics, the Lockheed Martin and Jeff Bezos space company, Blue Origin, won the Advanced Defense Projects Agency or DARPA award, as part of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations or DRACO program.
The goal of the program is deceptively simple: to use a nuclear thermal propulsion system to power a spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit.
The Pentagon Research and Development Agency says a nuclear-powered spacecraft has the potential to achieve both the high power of a chemical-based propulsion system and the high efficiency of an energy-powered system. electric.
“This combination would give a DRACO spacecraft greater agility to implement the Department of Defense’s basic principle of rapid maneuvering in cislunar space (between Earth and the Moon),” the agency said.
The contracts awarded to the companies correspond to the first phase of 18 months of the program, with two tracks.
On runway A, General Atomics will address the preliminary design of a nuclear thermal reactor and the concept of a propulsion subsystem, with a $ 22.2 million contract.
On runway B, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin, awarded $ 2.5 million and $ 2.9 million, respectively, will develop conceptual spacecraft designs.
“Nuclear thermal propulsion is a transformative technology that will dramatically change the way spacecraft work, increasing agility and allowing more efficient travel to Mars and beyond in much less time than conventional propulsion systems,” Bill said. Pratt, manager of Human Exploration Advanced at Lockheed Martin Space Programs, said in a statement to CNBC. “A lot of work has been done on nuclear propulsion in previous decades and we will leverage that experience as we combine it with modern spacecraft design and modern digital engineering and creativity to advance this new capability.”
While the defense giant often focuses on this type of Pentagon work, this award represents a new national security contract for Bezos’ company, which focuses on a variety of space projects, including its rocket. New Shepard, a reusable giant rocket named New Glenn, and a terrifying lunar astronaut for NASA.
“Blue Origin is delighted to support DARPA in maturing spacecraft concepts for this important technology area,” Brent Sherwood, the company’s senior vice president of advanced development programs, said in a statement to CNBC.
DARPA anticipates that the first phase of the DRACO work will be completed by the end of 2022, and that the following phases will be achieved.