Summary
The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program is an effort to advance nuclear propulsion technology for critical space missions.
Nuclear thermal rockets (NTRs) use a nuclear reactor to heat propellant to extreme temperatures before exhausting the hot propellant through a nozzle to produce thrust. Compared to conventional space propulsion technologies, NTRs offers a high thrust-to-weight ratio around 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion and two-to-five times greater specific impulse (i.e. propellant efficiency) than in-space chemical propulsion.
A leap-ahead propulsion technology would enable new mission sets – both in the cislunar domain (the volume of space between the Earth and the moon) and for trips to Mars and beyond.
DARPA, in consultation with NASA, our DRACO mission partner, is focusing DRACO development on the highest technical risk first: Developing and flight-qualifying a nuclear thermal rocket engine and its reactor.