Historical overview on nuclear thermal rockets: Rover and Nerva Programs

The main aim of this paper is to provide a historical overview on Nuclear Thermal Rockets (NTR) based on nuclear fission reactions to understand the main challenges that had to be overcome to show the feasibility of such technology. The details of the ROVER and NERVA programs which developed many nuclear reactors with power ranging from around 100 MW to approximately 4000 MW are discussed. Some of these reactors were tested in systems close to what a real engine would look like but could not reach flight since the programs were terminated due to lack of public support among other reasons. The paper is developed according to a literature review using available data primarily from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Technical Report Server and a paper from Los Alamos National Laboratory where ROVER was initiated. (author)