According to the report of The Hindu, chemical-powered rockets cannot be filled with enough fuel, with the help of which they can travel very long distances in space. On the other hand, if we talk about solar power, even after traveling a very long distance in space, sunlight will not come, which will make it difficult for the rocket to run. For this reason, now ISRO has started working on a nuclear powered engine. According to the report, both ISRO and BARC are jointly developing the radio thermoelectric generator.
How will ISRO’s nuclear rocket work?
A source said, “Work on this has already started and it has been taken up as a major challenge which will be completed soon.” Nuclear engines are not considered the same type as nuclear fission reactors that generate electricity. Radioactive materials such as plutonium-238 or strontium-90 are used inside radio thermoelectric generators. When they are destroyed, they generate heat. This engine will have two parts, first – the radioisotope heater unit which will generate heat and the second will be radio thermoelectric generators which will convert this heat into electricity.
This heat will then be transferred to the ‘thermocouple’. It is a material that produces voltage. If we say in simple language, then imagine a rod whose one end is very hot and the other end is not. But the voltage will be inside the entire rod. This voltage can be used to charge the battery which will provide the required power to the satellite. Nitansha Bansal, a cyber security expert at Columbia University, believes that the alignment of planets makes no sense for radio thermoelectric generators.
NASA is already using nuclear engine
Nitansha said that this would greatly reduce the need for launch windows for scientists. Radio thermoelectric generators are however none the less. The US space agency NASA’s spacecraft Voyager, Cassini and Curiosity also run on similar engines. NASA is now working on new nuclear thermal propulsion technology which is planned to be included by the year 2027. With the help of this new technology, astronauts will be able to travel very fast in distant space. This will clear the way for NASA astronauts to go to Mars and Moon easily. Not only this, it will take less time for the astronauts and the danger will also be less. China is also working very fast on similar technology.