“Nuclear tech has traditionally been government-developed and operated, but we have discovered a thriving ecosystem of commercial companies, including start-ups, innovating in space nuclear.” “Advanced nuclear technologies will provide the speed, power and responsiveness to maintain an operational advantage in space,” said US Air Force Maj Ryan Weed, programme manager for the Nuclear Advanced Propulsion and Power (NAPP) programme at DIU. The Prototype Other Transaction contract to Avalanche, one of two awarded by the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to next generation nuclear propulsion and power concepts, is aimed to test solutions that give small spacecraft the ability to manoeuvre at will in near space and enable high power payloads that will support the expansion of Department of Defense space missions. With the physics of the Orbitron enabling its small size, potential benefits include rapid manufacturing using conventional tools and techniques, light weight and low cost.īut it also brings challenges, among them the small plasma interaction space, requiring extremely high voltages to trap the ions at fusion relevant speeds, and the plasma interactions are not well understood.Īvalanche envisages micro fusion to have limitless applications for distributed clean energy from personal transportation to microgrid power, while its small size offers potential for use both for propulsion and as a power source for space applications. Space-based solar power gains growing interest

Orbitron website