Modern chemical and nuclear (jet-propulsion engines (CJPE and NJPE respectively) have a relatively small velocity of combustion products ( heated work body, in NJPE) discharged from the engine nozzle, and may therefore be used only for flights in space or for launching automatic stations to planets of the Solar system to receive information from them, which may take màny years.

1. Plasmatron-Plasma Accelerator

2. Body of the Engine

3. Device for Plasma Stabilization

4. Magnet for retaining plasma in the active zone

5. Active zone

6. Fission fragments leaving the nozzle

7. Ejected working fluids (fission fragments, neutrons, gamma quantam)

À new jet-propulsion engine is critically needed for effective mastering of interplanetary space when the time of flight to any planet and back to the Earth does not exceed one year. The proposed NJPE equipped with an installation producing nuclear fuel (NF) for its operation can be a version of such an engine.

Both the engine itself and the NF-producing installation are based on the new principle of interaction of neutrons with the substance and of using the effect of involving thermonuclear neutrons in the fission reaction, which allows for an increase in the speed of nuclear reactions of ten to a hundred thousand times and thus, correspondingly, for a reduction in density of substances engaged in the reactions.

The NJPE developed on the basis of these principles has the following characteristics:

• the chain nuclear fission reaction is carried out in a deep vacuum, and high-energy products of nuclear reactions may therefore leave the active zone (AZ) and the engine nozzle with practically no loss of its kinetic energy at the speed of about 10,000 km/s and create a jet thrust; the proposed engine is much less loaded by its thermal mode than modern NJPE because less than 5% of the nuclear energy released remains in its AZ whereas in present-day NJPE virtually all 100 percent remains in the AZ. Its power may therefore reach tens and hundreds of GWts.

• nuclear fuel for engine operation, except for the time needed for bringing all its systems to full capacity, will be produced aboard the spacecraft from natural uranium. Thus, a certain quantity of safe compact metallic uranium will be in the missile instead of massive and explosion- hazardous fuel tanks;

• the NJPE will operate during the time of the entire flight, ensuring practical elimination of weightlessness and the maintenance of comfortable conditions for astronauts, while the average flight speed may reach up to I 000 km/s;

• since fission products leave the engine nozzle at a high speed, the radiation background when the engine is in operation both in the vicinity of the spacecraft and in interplanetary space will not increase because these products will escape the limits of the Solar system in less than 10 days;

• potential of the engine allows in principle for bringing an interplanetary spacecraft to any planet of the Solar system in less than 20 days or for boasting an interstellar probe at 1/2 light speed.

Since the design is a fundamental development, it requires considerable capital and human resources and is not of commercial interest at present, its implementation may require an international program.

1. Materials Heater. 2. Plasmatron. 3. Plasma Accelerator 4. Plasma Pipe S. Decelerator 6. Device for Plasma Stabilization 7. Opaque Magnetic Fuse 8. Magnetic Fuse porous only for fission fragments. 9. Plasma from Divided Particles and Products of Division. 10. Body of the Engine. 11. Nozzle (zone of nuclear fission elements) 12. Ejected working fluids (fission fragments, neutrons, gamma quantam).

Back