"Reducing transit time is vital for human missions to Mars to limit a crew's exposure to radiation," he added.īWX Technologies will be responsible for developing the nuclear reactor and propellant.įor safety purposes, DRACO's reactor will not be turned on until the spacecraft has reached a high orbit. "These more powerful and efficient nuclear thermal propulsion systems can provide faster transit times between destinations," said Kirk Shireman, vice president of Lunar Exploration Campaigns at Lockheed Martin Space. The process super heats the propellant, converting it into a gas and funneling it through a nozzle to produce thrust. NTP works by pumping a liquid propellant, in DRACO's case cryogenic hydrogen, through a reactor core, where uranium atoms split apart through fission. Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems could cut journey times, increase fuel efficiency, and require less propellant, meaning future spacecraft could carry larger payloads than today's best chemical rockets. She adds, “The mysterious nature of cosmic rays serves as a reminder of just how little we know about our universe.”įor more high-energy science from beyond Earth’s atmosphere, stay tuned to Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program may launch as soon as 2027, officials said on a call. ISS-CREAM has a goal of measuring the highest energy possible for direct measurement of high-energy cosmic rays.” The longer exposure times on the space station allow for the measurement of higher energies. The station allows for longterm monitoring in lieu of multiple limited-duration balloon flights, providing direct, unimpeded access to incoming cosmic rays without atmospheric interference. Seo says, “The ISS provides an excellent monitoring platform for high-energy cosmic rays. Named “ISS-CREAM,” it will remain installed on the Japanese Experiment Module, also known as Kibo, for at least three years.
A reconfigured CREAM detector is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station in 2017 aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket. Since 2004, the team has flown CREAM seven times over Antarctica accumulating more than 191 days of data from altitudes as high as 120,000 feet. CREAM is able to measure the energy and direction of each incoming cosmic ray particle and identify the particle type by measuring its charge, thereby providing clues to the particles’ origin and acceleration mechanisms. By lofting the detector above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere, researchers get a better idea of what cosmic rays are like before they collide with nuclei in the air above the detector. The cosmic ray detector known as CREAM (The Cosmic-Ray Energetics and Mass investigation) has been launched to the stratosphere above Antarctica onboard long-duration helium-filled balloons.
While indications of the energies of cosmic ray particles can be measured from the ground, Seo and colleagues have taken their studies to higher elevations, directly measuring particles from space before they break up in Earth’s atmosphere. “But how do natural cosmic ray accelerators pump so much energy into these particles? This is one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics.” This is more energy than we have achieved in the most powerful manmade particle accelerators.” Other, unknown cataclysmic phenomena may be at work, too, especially for the most energetic cosmic rays.Įun-Suk Seo, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland says, “Cosmic ray particles with energies as high as 10 20 electron volts have been measured on the ground. The expanding shock waves can break apart interstellar atoms and accelerate the debris to unimaginably high energies. When massive stars explode they blast most of their material into space. It’s believed that the majority of cosmic rays come from supernova explosions.
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