Americans To Orbit Tiny A-Power Plant

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30711, 29 March 1965, Page 11

Americans To Orbit Tiny A-Power Plant

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright*

WASHINGTON, March 28.

United States scientists plan to put a nuclear reactor power plant into space—A SJN A.P.-10A satellite weighing 9701 b on April 1.

The flight has two aims—to test a compact power system capable of supplying 500 watts of electricity over long periods and to check a tiny ion rocket engine developed for future space flights to the planet Jupiter, or beyond.

Except in size, the reactor will be similar to the giants which run submarines and land-based atomic power stations. The United States has spent 111.8 million dollars on S.N.A.P.-10A since July, 1959.

The satellite will be boosted by an Atlas-Agena rocket from the west coast test range into an orbit carrying it across the poles at an altitude of 805 miles.

The S.N.A.P. (standing for —systems for nuclear auxiliary power) programme is designed to develop long-lasting electrical power sources for long-distance space shots and other missions expected to last up to several years. The reactor aboard S.N.A.P.10A is designed to operate for two years.

If the planned orbit is achieved, the reactor would not be expected to fall back into the earth’s atmosphere for 3500 years. During its flight test. S.N.A.P.-10A will supply power for a low-thrust rocket engine

developed by the United States Air Force.

The engine weighs only 2.21 b. Its thrust will be only 1-5001 b.

lon engines lack enough weight-lifting thrust to be useful for spacecraft launches from earth; but once a spacecraft is on its way in regions where gravitational forces are feeble, high velocity thrusters could be indispensable for long-distance missions. A spokesman for the Atomic Energy Commission said: “On a trip to Jupiter an ion engine could reach a speed of 100,000 miles an hour and cover the distance in less than a year. A chemical rocket (like all those now in use) would take two years and a half to make the same trip.”

Atomic power batteries attaining their energy from radio-active materials have been flown aboard spacecraft before: but the S.N.A.P.-10A spacecraft will carry the first miniature nuclear reactor aloft.