THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ISRO has successfully started trials of using nuclear power for satellite launches. ISRO Chairman S Somanath revealed that the radioisotope heating unit, the first stage of a nuclear-powered rocket engine, has been successfully tested on Chandrayaan-3.

Rockets currently use liquid oxygen and hydrogen as chemical fuels. No country uses nuclear power in rockets. NASA's plan to develop it for the Mars mission is in progress. America uses nuclear power in interplanetary probes like Voyager and Curiosity.

Nuclear-powered rockets are being developed to overcome the crisis faced in interplanetary missions due to insufficient sunlight and oxygen, and to reach the target quickly. Mars is 18.80 crore km from Earth. It will take six to nine months to reach there, but if nuclear power is used, Mars can be reached in 45 days. Nuclear-powered rockets and probes can accomplish missions outside the solar system as well. The lander of Chandrayaan-3 came to rest after 14 days due to lack of sunlight.

Collaboration with BARC

ISRO is developing the nuclear thermal propellant rocket engine in collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC). A nuclear rocket engine has two parts, a radioisotope heater unit and a radio thermoelectric generator (RTG). The first part was tested on Chandrayaan. A 5-watt model of the second part has been tested and a 100-watt model will be tested next.

Isotopes like plutonium-238 and strontium-90 were used in this. They can release heat up to 2426.85 degrees Celsius from a single molecule. This is passed to a material called a thermocouple which then becomes a high voltage. This is how a nuclear thermal propulsion engine works.

The start-up system of the nuclear rocket, control valve, control rod, cooling channel, thrust chamber, program controller and fuel pump were developed. The new rocket is expected to be launched soon. With that, India will make a huge leap in the field of space research.