Principles of Nuclear Rocket Propulsion

William J. Emrich, Jr. has worked as a senior engineer at NASA Marshall Center for almost 35 years investigating numerous advanced propulsion concepts for travel in deep space. Most recently he worked as the project manager and principal investigator of the Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator (NTREES) which is a one of a kind facility that he developed to recreate the harsh operating environments present in operating nuclear rocket engines and where now nuclear rocket fuel elements are tested to their limits to evaluate their survivability. In 2015, as a result of his efforts in developing the NTREES facility he became only the second Marshall employee to win the AIAA Engineer of the Year award. To acknowledge this award, the city Huntsville, Alabama designated the day he received the award as William Emrich day. Now retired from NASA, he is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville where he teaches a course in nuclear rocket propulsion and mentors young engineers seeking to pursue a career in that field. William Emrich is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of California and is a fellow in the American Society Mechanical Engineers and an associate fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

1. Introduction 2. Rocket Engine Fundamentals 3. Nuclear Rocket Engine Cycles 4. Interplanetary Mission Analysis 5. Basic Nuclear Structure and Processes 6. Neutron Flux Energy Distribution 7. Neutron Balance Equation and Transport Theory 8. Multigroup Neutron Diffusion Equations 9. Thermal Fluid Aspects of Nuclear Rockets 10. Turbomachinery 11. Nuclear Reactor Kinetics 12. Nuclear Rocket Stability 13. Fuel Burnup and Transmutation 14. Radiation Shielding of Nuclear Rockets 15. Materials for Nuclear Thermal Rockets 16. Nuclear Rocket Engine Testing 17. Safety Considerations for Nuclear Rocket Engines 18. Advanced Nuclear Rocket Concepts

Appendix I. Table of Physical Constants II. Thermodynamic Properties of Several Gases III. Selected Data from NERVA Tests