Research at the intersection of nuclear and aerospace at MIT is ongoing and expected to gain momentum in the in the near future. This website details MIT’s current and recent work in nuclear propulsion, fission surface power, and other relevant subfields associated with both the NSE and AeroAstro departments.
Overview
Nuclear technology has been pursued as a means of better enabling space exploration since Project Rover debuted in the 1950’s. Since then, several means of using nuclear propulsion and power have been seriously researched, prototyped, and in some cases, utilized for space missions. To date, the major categories of aerospace-nuclear technologies are:
- Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP)
- Nuclear electric propulsion (NEP)
- Air-breathing nuclear propulsion
- Fission surface power (FSP)
- Radioisotope power systems
Several of these technologies are current topics of research at MIT, but at present, all of them are being pursued at various stages of development around the world. Abstracts of research efforts specific to MIT and its affiliates, associated labs, and contacts are on this website.
Current research thrusts
Advanced nuclear thermal propulsion
Faculty: Koroush Shirvan kshirvan@mit.edu
Development of computational modeling techniques to further the development of the Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket.
Air-breathing nuclear propulsion
Faculty: Zoltán Spakovszky zolti@mit.edu
Reverse engineering the Burevestnik nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered cruise missile to gain insight into future applications of air-breathing nuclear propulsion.
NTP materials development
Faculty: Koroush Shirvan kshirvan@mit.edu
Retrofitting the MITR facilities to support testing NTP materials in the presence of both hot hydrogen flow and neutron flux.
Fission surface power
Faculty: Olivier de Weck deweck@mit.edu
Determining future role and necessity of FSP in supporting human missions to the moon and Mars.
Relevant Courses @ MIT
While MIT does not yet offer an SNP-specific course, there are several in both the NSE and AeroAstro departments that provide useful background:
- 16.522 Space Propulsion: basic orbital mechanics and mission modeling, overview of electric propulsion techniques and underlying plasma physics concepts
- 16.512 Rocket Propulsion: builds on 16.50, but focus is on chemical rocket propulsion systems for launch, orbital, and interplanetary flight. The most recent offering of the course concluded with 2 lectures on NTP.
- 22.211 (22.05) Nuclear Reactor Physics I: an overview of reactor physics methods for core design and analysis
- 22.312 / 22.06 Engineering of Nuclear Reactors: engineering principles of nuclear reactors, emphasizing power reactors. Focus on single- and two-phase flow. Together with 22.211, provides the fundamentals needed to model and design a nuclear system.