NUCLEAR ROCKET ENGINE ON A COMPRESSED WORKING SUBSTANCE Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC G21C1/00 F02K9/00 

FIELD: rocket engines.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a rocket engine with a nuclear source of heating the working fluid. The engine includes a nuclear reactor with a cooled body equipped with a liquid metal coolant - lithium, an electromagnetic pump, a compensation tank, heat emitter panels, as well as orientation engines and an onboard electric generator. The electric generator is made in the form of a thermionic or thermoelectric generator, to which heat is supplied by a coolant, and removed by radiator panels. A supersonic nozzle is attached to the core with power control elements in the form of pneumatically actuated control rods. The compressed working fluid is located in a disposable battery. The battery glass has a conical bottom and a support grid on the side of the reactor. Leaky guides with blocks of porous structure are installed inside the glass, providing storage of hydrogen compressed to a pressure of more than 100 MPa inside the pores. Inside the bottom, a massive mechanism for driving mechanical devices for breaking blocks is rigidly fixed. The reactor is mounted on a support ring with a docking device for docking the battery, and on the opposite side of the reactor, the support ring is covered with screen-vacuum thermal insulation, and a neck with high-temperature thermal insulation-filter is welded in the center of the ring, in addition, an aerosol gas filter is installed between the battery glass and the neck.

EFFECT: invention provides the possibility of storing on board the engine nuclear fuel compressed to a high pressure (more than 100 MPa) and supplying it to the reactor at a given pressure (about 100 MPa) without a turbine unit, as well as the possibility of placing drives and reactor controls at a minimum distance.

1 cl, 2 dwg