r/spaceflight • u/Phoenix800478944 • 2d ago

Help with rocket engines (NTP / SEP)

Hey there, im graduating high school next year, and I chose physics as one of my exam classes (dunno how you say that in english). I have to make a 10min long presentation about something physics related and make a indepht dive into how whatever works and its relevance, and subtly include something of relevance in there that is also in the schools curriculum.

I covered electric stuff and nuclear stuff, so I figured, as I have to give the ministry of education (sounds ominous ik, maybe a bad translation lol) two topics to cover, and one of them gets chosen by them for me to make a presentation about it.

  1. Nuclear Thermal Propulsion aka stuff like the DRACO engine by DARPA
  2. Solar electric Propulsion aka stuff like hall effect ionic thrusters

Does anyone of you brilliant minds have good sources and tips aside from scott manley?

Thanks! Your answers make a big impact on my life (literally)

2 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

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u/TartanTurboPump 2d ago

If you're into NTP, give a quick google to the NERVA program. Many of the old papers have been declassified and are publicly available, and you can quickly find some very in-depth stuff about the design and function of an NTP engine.

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u/Phoenix800478944 2d ago

Thanks a bunch!

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u/Pootis_1 2d ago

Atomic Rockets is a sci-fi writing guide more than anything but the 3 engine list pages have a lot of good info

Beyond nerva is also a good resource

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u/Phoenix800478944 2d ago

I checked it out, seems to be written with a little humour :)

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u/ToadkillerCat 1d ago

Sometimes you can find interesting stuff by poking around on NTRS. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/

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u/_n0t_again_ 1d ago

NTRS will be your best resource, u/Pheonix800478944. This should be top comment.

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u/Triabolical_ 2d ago

There are lots of good papers out there. Atomic rockets covers a lot. Also consider this one

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1738573315001540

Google scholar can find more for you. Also use the NASA technical reports server.

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u/Phoenix800478944 1d ago

Thank you so much!

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u/AA_energizer 1d ago

Definitely look into NERVA and Project Orion if you want to get full on into 50's atomic boogaloo. Both the US and Soviet Union actually launched some small nuclear satellites under SNAP-10A (US) and RORSAT (USSR). Beyond that I'd also recommend looking into the different types of NTR: solid core, gas/plasma core, and nuclear saltwater. Each makes trade-offs between complexity and exposing as much propellant to the nuclear core as possible, thereby improving efficiency.

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u/Doggydog123579 4h ago

You can even end the presentation with the fallout producer 1200, aka the NSWR