Facts Sheet Project NERVA
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22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
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Informal monthly progress letter no. 11 to AEC-NASA Space Nuclear Propulsion Office for Project NERVA, covering period May 1962
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Vibration computer programs E13101, E13102, E13104, and E13112 and application to the NERVA program. Project 187: Methodology documentation
Programs for the analyses of the free or forced, undamped vibrations of one or two elastically-coupled lumped parameter teams are presented. Bearing nonlinearities, casing and rotor distributed mass and elasticity, rotor imbalance, forcing functions, gyroscopic moments, rotary inertia, and shear and flexural deformations are all included in the system dynamics analysis. All bearings have nonlinear load displacement characteristics, the solution is achieved by iteration. Rotor imbalances allowed by such considerations as pilot tolerances and runouts as well as bearing clearances (allowing concail or cylindrical whirl) determine the forcing function magnitudes. The computer programs first obtain a solution wherein the bearings are treated as linear springs of given spring rates. Then, based upon the computed bearing reactions, new spring rates are predicted and another solution of the modified system is made. The iteration is continued until the changes to bearing spring rates and bearing reactions become negligibly small.
Mironenko, G.↗
Nuclear propulsion.
Nuclear propulsion systems feasibility for space vehicles, covering kiwi and nerva projects
PROPULSION SYSTEM↗
Irradiation effects studies of NERVA materials
Several materials used in the NERVA project were irradiated at cryogenic temperatures to neutron fluences between 10 to the 17th and 10 to the 19th power newtons per square centimeter. Tensile properties were determined over a temperature range to evaluate the effects of irradiation on the material properties. The expected radiation damage typical of other materials was observed. A general increase in strength and decrease in ductility occurred. The effects at liquid nitrogen temperatures are more pronounced since radiation induced defects are not annealed out.
Demastry, J. A.↗
Nuclear rocket program revised news release 63-285
Revision of rover program, rift project, and nerva & kiwi reactors
KIWI ROCKET REACTOR↗
NUCLEAR PROPULSION. STATE OF THE ART - 1962
Nuclear propulsion progress - kiwi-b reactor, propellant and engine development, rift project, and nerva engine
REACTOR IN-FLIGHT TEST /RIFT/ PROJECT↗
Nuclear ground test module insulation development
Insulation system for nuclear ground test module - NERVA and Rover project
Gause, R. L.↗
Nuclear thermal rocket workshop reference system Rover/NERVA
The Rover/NERVA engine system is to be used as a reference, against which each of the other concepts presented in the workshop will be compared. The following topics are reviewed: the operational characteristics of the nuclear thermal rocket (NTR); the accomplishments of the Rover/NERVA programs; and performance characteristics of the NERVA-type systems for both Mars and lunar mission applications. Also, the issues of ground testing, NTR safety, NASA's nuclear propulsion project plans, and NTR development cost estimates are briefly discussed.
Borowski, Stanley K.↗
NERVA development status.
NERVA engine development, discussing NRX tests and Phoebus reactor tests for high temperature and power operation
PHOEBUS NUCLEAR REACTOR↗
Propulsion at the Marshall Space Flight Center - A brief history
The history of propulsion development at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is summarized, beginning with the development of the propulsion system for the Redstone missile. This course of propulsion development continues through the Jupiter IRBM, the Saturn family of launch vehicles and the engines that powered them, the Centaur upper stage and RL-10 engine, the Reactor In-Flight Test stage and the NERVA nuclear engine. The Space Shuttle Main Engine and Solid Rocket Boosters are covered, as are spacecraft propulsion systems, including the reaction control systems for the High Energy Astronomy Observatory and the Space Station. The paper includes a description of several technology efforts such as those in high pressure turbomachinery, aerospike engines, and the AS203 cyrogenic fluid management flight experiment. These and other propulsion projects are documented, and the scope of activities in support of these efforts at Marshall delineated.
Jones, L. W.↗
Exploratory study of several advanced nuclear-MHD power plant systems.
In order for efficient multimegawatt closed cycle nuclear-MHD systems to become practical, long-life gas cooled reactors with exit temperatures of about 2500 K or higher must be developed. Four types of nuclear reactors which have the potential of achieving this goal are the NERVA-type solid core reactor, the colloid core (rotating fluidized bed) reactor, the 'light bulb' gas core reactor, and the 'coaxial flow' gas core reactor. Research programs aimed at developing these reactors have progressed rapidly in recent years so that prototype power reactors could be operating by 1980. Three types of power plant systems which use these reactors have been analyzed to determine the operating characteristics, critical parameters and performance of these power plants. Overall thermal efficiencies as high as 80% are projected, using an MHD turbine-compressor cycle with steam bottoming, and slightly lower efficiencies are projected for an MHD motor-compressor cycle.
Williams, J. R.↗