Identification of Archived Design Information for Small Class Nuclear Rockets

The new Vision for Space Exploration initiative issued by President Bush requires technology development in several disciplines to place humans on the Moon and Mars within the next twenty years. One major technology development to achieve these goals could be nuclear thermal rockets (NTR). Several NTRs were developed and tested by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in collaboration with NASA and private industry from 1956 through 1972 in the Rover and NERVA programs. The technology reached TRL-6 by the current NASA definition. Recovery of the NTR technology could significantly reduce the cost of building a Lunar Base or of sending humans to Mars. Any recovery of NTR technology would be greatly facilitated by identifying and consolidating all designs, drawings, and blueprints generated during the NTR programs. More specifically, accumulation of the component designs for the Pewee I reactor could greatly facilitate recovery of the NTR technology base. We have completed an effort to identify the information still present on the Pewee and to identify the requirements to construct electronic CAD/CAM files of parts used in an NTR. Completion of this project will be used in formulating a technology roadmap for the recovery of NTR technology.