PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Ohio State scientists advance focus on nuclear propulsion

Next-gen concept doubles rocket potential, study finds

2025-09-11
(Press-News.org) COLUMBUS, Ohio – New developments in nuclear thermal propulsion technologies may soon enable advanced space missions to the farthest reaches of the solar system.  

Leading these advances are researchers at The Ohio State University: Engineers are developing a nuclear propulsion system that uses liquid uranium to directly heat rocket propellant as an alternative to solid fuel elements used by traditional nuclear propulsion systems.  

Their concept, called the centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket (CNTR), is specially designed to improve rocket performance while simultaneously minimizing any engine risk.  

While similar breakthroughs in the field have focused more on affordability than performance, CNTR potentially offers a substantial advantage for future crewed space missions even compared to other types of nuclear-powered systems in that it can approximately double an engine’s efficiency, said Dean Wang, a senior member of the project and an associate professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State. 

“In recent years, there has been quite an increased interest in nuclear thermal propulsion technology as we contemplate returning humans to the moon and working in cis-lunar space,” said Wang. “But beyond it, a new system is needed, as traditional chemical engines may not be feasible.” 

Chemical engines have been used in spaceflight since the very beginning of the space age.  However, they are limited in thrust, and use large quantities of propellant. Consequently, missions to the outer reaches of the solar system can take a very long time – nine years in the case of the New Horizons spacecraft that flew by Pluto.  

Because of these limitations, future missions will require propulsion systems that can reduce travel time, increase the amount of material sent on the mission, or both, if researchers want to safely send astronauts to far-off destinations — all vital reasons why demonstrating the potential of these approaches is so important, said Wang.  

“The longer you are in space, the more susceptible you are to all types of health risks,” he said. “So if we can make that any shorter, it’d be very beneficial.”  

If the team’s design is successful, implementing their engine in future rockets could make it easier to travel farther on less fuel, as the highest specific impulse — the amount of thrust achievable from a specific amount of propellant — of a chemical engine is about 450 seconds.  Nuclear propulsion engines based on designs tested in the 1960s achieved approximately 900 seconds and, according to the team, a CNTR could achieve even higher values. 

Utilizing nuclear thermal propulsion would also mean more flexibility for mission operations, as rockets could take advantage of additional flight trajectories not possible with chemical engines,  to help reach deep-space targets in shorter periods of time. More notably, because these systems can utilize a range of potential substances as propellant, widespread use could quickly facilitate the development of in-space resources such as asteroids and Kuiper Belt objects, said Wang.  

Overall, these heightened capabilities could allow quicker round-trip human missions to Mars as well as support novel one-way robotic missions to the outer planets, including Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, said Spencer Christian, a PhD student in engineering at Ohio State. Under John Horack, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State, Christian leads prototype construction of CNTR.  

“You could have a safe one-way trip to Mars in six months, for example, as opposed to doing the same mission in a year,” said Christian. “Depending on how well it works, the prototype CNTR engine is pushing us towards the future.” 

Despite these newfound avenues for increased space exploration, like with any emerging innovation, there are many engineering challenges that still have to be addressed, said Wang.  

“We have a very good understanding of the physics of our design, but there are still technical challenges that we need to overcome,” he said.  

Many of these challenges were detailed in a study the team recently published in the journal Acta Astronautica. Some potential hurdles include ensuring that the methods used for startup, operation and shutdown avoid instabilities as well as envisioning ways to minimize the loss of uranium fuel and accommodate potential engine failures. 

This team’s CNTR concept is expected to reach design readiness within the next five years — but in preparing their model for potential next-generation use, researchers are most looking forward to showing how well it could fare under extreme conditions.  

After all, a final laboratory demonstration will likely help inform the direction of future nuclear thermal propulsion technologies. “We need to keep space nuclear propulsion as a consistent priority in the future, so that technology can have time to mature,” said Wang. “It’s a huge benefit that we can’t afford to miss out on.”  

The team’s effort was supported by a grant provided by NASA.

#

Contact: Dean Wang, Wang.12239@osu.edu

Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.edu

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New study reveals a hidden risk after cervical cancer

2025-09-11
For women who’ve overcome cervical cancer, new research from MUSC Hollings Cancer Center points to another health risk that may not be on their radar: anal cancer. Led by Hollings researchers Haluk Damgacioglu, Ph.D., and Ashish Deshmukh, Ph.D., co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program, the study sheds light on an under-recognized risk facing women with a history of cervical cancer – and highlights the need for updated screening guidelines. The paper was published in JAMA Network Open. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers: Thanks to routine screening and the HPV vaccine, it has a survival rate of over ...

Environment: Indigenous Amazon territories benefit human health

2025-09-11
Protecting Indigenous territories in areas of the Amazon rainforest with high levels of forest cover may help reduce the number of cases of several diseases (including malaria and respiratory conditions) in the surrounding areas. The results, from an analysis published in Communications Earth & Environment, highlight the importance of legal protection for Indigenous territories in the Amazon, and the complex role they play in human health. There are an estimated 2.7 million Indigenous people living in the Amazon, predominantly in Indigenous ...

Zoology: Octopuses put their best arm forward for every task

2025-09-11
Octopuses can use any of their arms to perform tasks, but tend to use a particular arm, or arms, for specific tasks. This finding, presented in a paper in Scientific Reports, reveals more about the complex behaviour these animals display. Octopus arms are complex structures consisting of four separate muscle groups — transverse, longitudinal, oblique, and circular — around a central nerve. These four muscle groups allow octopus arms to deform in a wide variety of ways to perform a range of actions used for various behaviours, from hunting and moving, to self-defence. However, little is known about how wild ...

New research reveals wild octopus arms in action

2025-09-11
Octopuses are among the most neurologically complex invertebrates, famed for their extraordinary dexterity. Their eight arms allow them to capture hidden prey, communicate, explore, and even mate across varied habitats. Although octopus arms rank among some of the most flexible structures in nature, their full range of movement has rarely been studied in the wild – especially in a range of underwater habitats. A new study by Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, in collaboration with researchers from the Marine Biological ...

NEW STUDY: Across eight Amazon countries, forests on Indigenous lands reduce spread of 27 diseases – From respiratory ailments to illnesses spread by insects, animals

2025-09-11
Belém, Brazil – Gland, Switzerland (11 SEPTEMBER 2025) — New research published today in Communications Earth and Environment, a Nature Group journal, finds that municipalities in the Amazon region closest to healthy forests on Indigenous lands face less risk from rising cases of two categories of disease: cardiovascular and respiratory diseases due to forest fires and illnesses spread when humans come into closer contact with animals and insects.   The findings, released at the onset of forest fire season in the region and in advance of the climate negotiations (COP30) in Belem, Brazil, is the latest study in a growing body of evidence showing ...

How many ways can an octopus flex its supple arms? Now we know

2025-09-11
By David Chandler WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Octopus arms are one of the most flexible structures known in all of the biological world. Their agility is so extraordinary that robotics researchers want to learn the secrets behind their movements, hoping to apply some of the same principles. They envision soft, flexible robotic appendages that, like the highly tactile octopus arms, can search and carry out tasks through tight and narrow openings, such as delivering life-saving food and water to people trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. Now, researchers from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) ...

Analysis of ‘magic mushroom’ edibles finds no psilocybin but many undisclosed active ingredients

2025-09-11
CORVALLIS, Ore. – “Magic mushroom” edibles sold at smoke shops and convenience stores are likely to contain no psilocybin but instead a range of undisclosed active ingredients, a study led by an Oregon State University College of Pharmacy scientist shows. The research collaboration, which included a state-certified testing laboratory and a scientific instrument manufacturer, published its findings today in JAMA Network Open, a journal of the American Medical Association. In Portland, the scientists purchased 12 gummies and chocolates labeled as magic mushrooms and analyzed their contents. Psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound produced ...

Modifiable parental factors and adolescent sleep during early adolescence

2025-09-11
About The Study: In this prospective study of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study cohort, modifiable parental factors in early adolescence were associated with specific adolescent sleep outcomes 4 years later, with screen use and emotional regulation serving as mediators. Adolescent sex moderated the association between parental warmth and sleep chronotype. These findings highlight potential targets for evidence-based interventions to improve adolescent sleep health. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Rosalind Ge, MSc (saig@student.unimelb.edu.au) ...

Excess HIV infections and costs associated with reductions in HIV prevention services in the us

2025-09-11
About The Study: In this economic evaluation estimating effects of the possible health care policy changes on HIV transmission, findings suggest that even modest reductions in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) coverage would result in thousands of avoidable HIV infections and billions of dollars of increases in net health care costs. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Patrick S. Sullivan, DVM, PhD, email pssulli@emory.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.31341) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Clocks created from random events can probe ‘quantumness’ of universe

2025-09-11
A newly discovered set of mathematical equations describes how to turn any sequence of random events into a clock, scientists at King’s College London reveal.  The researchers suggest that these formulae could help to understand how cells in our bodies measure time and to detect the effects of quantum mechanics in the wider world.  Studying these timekeeping processes could have far-reaching implications, helping us to understand proteins with rhythmic movements which malfunction in motor neurone disease or chemical receptors that cells use to detect harmful toxins.  Einstein famously said that “Time is whatever a clock measures” ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Scientists create ChatGPT-like AI model for neuroscience to build one of the most detailed mouse brain maps to date

AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease

2023 ocean heatwave ‘unprecedented but not unexpected’

Johns Hopkins researchers develop AI to predict risk of US car crashes

New drug combination offers hope for men with advanced prostate cancer

New discovery finds gene converts insulin-producing cells into blood-sugar boosters

Powerful and precise multi-color lasers now fit on a single chip

Scientists agree chemicals can affect behavior, but industry workers more reluctant about safety testing

DNA nanospring measures cellular motor power

Elsevier Foundation and RIKEN launch “Envisioning Futures” report: paving the way for gender equity and women’s leadership in Japanese research

Researchers discover enlarged areas of the spinal cord in fish, previously found only in four-limbed vertebrates

Bipolar disorder heterogeneity decoded: transforming global psychiatric treatment approaches

Catching Alport syndrome through universal age-3 urine screening

Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep

Solar energy is now the world’s cheapest source of power, a Surrey study finds

Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice using nanoparticles

‘Good’ gut bacteria boosts placenta for healthier pregnancy

USC team demonstrates first optical device based on “optical thermodynamics”

Microplastics found to change gut microbiome in first human-sample study

Artificially sweetened and sugary drinks are both associated with an increased risk of liver disease, study finds

Plastic in the soil, but not as we know it: Biodegradable microplastics rewire carbon storage in farm fields

Yeast proteins reveal the secrets of drought resistance

Psychiatry, primary care, and OB/GYN subspecialties hit hardest by physician attrition

New Canadian study reveals where HIV hides in different parts of the body

Lidocaine poisonings rise despite overall drop in local anesthetic toxicity

Politics follow you on the road

Scientists blaze new path to fighting viral diseases

The mouse eye as a window to spotting systemic disease

AI and the Future of Cancer Research and Cancer Care to headline October 24 gathering of global oncology leaders at the National Press Club: NFCR Global Summit to feature top scientists, entrepreneurs

FDA clears UCLA heart tissue regeneration drug AD-NP1 for clinical trials

[Press-News.org] Ohio State scientists advance focus on nuclear propulsion
Next-gen concept doubles rocket potential, study finds