On Wednesday, Lockheed Martin Corp LMT announced a new contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a nuclear spaceship that could be used in manned missions to Mars.
The contract was awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a joint project with NASA that intends to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket in orbit.
The technology can also improve efficiency for trips in cislunar space, which is the space between the Earth and the Moon.
"The space domain is essential to modern commerce, scientific discovery and national defense," said DARPA in a press release.
Moving larger payloads into farther locations in the space between the Earth and the Moon will require a leap-ahead in propulsion technology, said the agency.
"A safe, reusable nuclear tug spacecraft would revolutionize" these operations, said Kirk Shireman, vice president of lunar exploration campaigns at Lockheed Martin Space.
The technology being explored is called nuclear thermal propulsion, and has the ability to multiply from two to five times the efficiency of chemical propulsion, which is the most ubiquitous technology used in space flights today.
In chemical propulsion, two or more chemicals are mixed in order to create a reaction that generates thrust. In nuclear propulsion, fission is used to split atoms apart, which releases heat that warms a propellant and converts it to a gas. The gas expelled from the ship generates thrust to move the ship forward.
BWX Technologies Inc BWXT, a provider of nuclear components and fuel to the U.S. government, was also chosen by the initiative to develop and produce the fuel that the mission will use.
According to the Department of Energy, nuclear thermal propulsion systems are not designed to produce the amount of thrust needed to leave the Earth’s surface. For this reason, the technology will only be used in space. Rockets would continue to use chemical reactions to lift off from the Earth's surface, avoiding the risk of generating nuclear reactions on Earth.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also heads space exploration company SpaceX, called a nuclear thermal rocket for fast transit around solar system “a great area of research for NASA.”
The technology would be groundbreaking in trips to Mars because it would reduce the length of the trip by at least 25% and would allow astronauts to abort a mission and return to Earth if necessary.
Also, "reducing transit time is vital for human missions to Mars to limit a crew’s exposure to radiation,” said Lockheed Martin's Shireman.
As per DARPA and Lockheed Martin, the demonstration of the nuclear spaceship will be carried out in space before 2027.
Lockheed Martin receives a majority of its revenue from arms and defense manufacturing and was the largest U.S. government contractor by 2019. The company has more than 116,000 employees, a majority of which are engineers. The company is also a major provider of aerospace technology.
LMT Price Action: Lockheed Martin stock recovered some losses from a minor drop on Monday, and is presenting a stable price, without major volatile events in the past week or month. Shares closed Wednesday down 0.22% at $452.81.
BWX Technologies presents a similar trajectory, down 0.043% on Wednesday and 0.4% on the last five trading days. Shares closed Wednesday at $69.93.
Photo: Lockheed Martin.
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