The US Department of Defense (DOD) is collecting bids for “lightweight, portable, long-duration” nuclear power and propulsion systems to support space missions beyond Earth’s orbit.
“Current electric and solar-based propulsion systems are neither suitable for future mission sets that will extend beyond Earth orbit, nor are they compatible with the volume constraints imposed by the shrinking size of next-generation spacecraft,” according to the project description from the DOD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). “Advanced propulsion technology […] is required to enable new DOD mission sets in space.”
Future missions, with their expanded capabilities and more remote destinations, will require more electrical power. So while the US government supports the development of fission-based propulsion and power, DIU’s partners are more interested in “mature commercial technologies” able to work “in the near term.”
That includes nuclear propulsion systems that offer high delta-V (change in velocity)—ideally more than 10km (6 miles) per second—and can be scaled down to less than 2,000kg (4,410 pounds) in dry mass.
NASA and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) already fund the development of nuclear spacecraft, which won’t be available for some time. The DOD, meanwhile, is ready to put nuclear propulsion into service, and hopes to have a prototype in three to five years.
Submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 23; DIU is expected to contact shortlisted companies within 30 days, and could award contracts within 60 to 90 days. Other Transaction (OT) awards, in which companies and the government must agree to invest, will support laboratory-based prototype testing.
