WASHINGTON — NASA is working on a streamlined management approach for a nuclear electric propulsion demonstration mission the agency wants to launch in two and a half years.
NASA announced the Space Reactor 1 (SR-1) Freedom mission at its Ignition event in March. The mission would be the first flight demonstration of nuclear electric propulsion, with a nuclear reactor providing power to electric thrusters to send the spacecraft to Mars.
Unlike some other initiatives announced at Ignition, including a lunar base and proposed changes to support commercial space stations, NASA has provided few updates on SR-1 Freedom since the event, even though the agency said then it plans to launch the mission at the end of 2028.
At a June 2 meeting of the National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board, NASA officials said the agency discussed planning for SR-1 Freedom at a management council meeting the previous day.
“We talked through the intent to streamline the processes that we’re going through for the development” of the mission, said Lori Glaze, NASA acting associate administrator for exploration systems development. That involves remaining compliant with existing NASA project management requirements “and yet make sure we’re tailoring that to the needs to allow us to go faster.”
“We are, as an agency, very focused on trying to identify the barriers to going quickly and identify how we can try to speed up decision-making,” she added.
The rapid schedule for SR-1 Freedom is enabled by using existing hardware. The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), the electric propulsion system built for the lunar Gateway, will be repurposed for the mission.
“It’s very far along in its development,” Glaze said of the PPE. “Yes, it will require some modifications, but we’re not starting from zero. We have a spacecraft.”
The nuclear reactor will also leverage existing designs for research reactors by the Department of Energy, although NASA has provided few details about it. “We are in very close collaboration with the Department of Energy,” she said, including modifying a memorandum of understanding between the agencies.
NASA has said little else about how the spacecraft will be built. Designs of the spacecraft released at Ignition show it will have a long truss separating the reactor from the rest of the spacecraft, as well as radiator panels for heat rejection.
SR-1 Freedom will transport to Mars SkyFall, a spacecraft that would deploy in the Martian atmosphere three helicopters based on the Ingenuity rotorcraft that accompanied the Perseverance rover.
“We’re trying to leverage as much as we can with as little new development as possible,” she said. “I know that’s a challenge and always sounds good on paper, but that’s the intent.”
The agency has not disclosed a cost estimate for SR-1 Freedom, and the mission was not included in NASA’s fiscal year 2027 budget request released a week and a half after Ignition.
Glaze did not disclose the projected cost for SR-1 Freedom at the National Academies meeting. She said the mission would make use of funding proposed in the 2027 request along with funds from last year’s budget reconciliation bill, which provided $2.6 billion for the Gateway.
“We’re in the process of looking through how we’re going to realign the resources we have to make sure they have what they need,” she said. The agency does not have a cost estimate for the mission yet, “but right now it all fits.”
Board members expressed some skepticism about the accelerated schedule for SR-1 Freedom, with one noting a two-year development timeline was more consistent with a cubesat. A review analogous to a preliminary design review is planned for the fall, she said, but noted that would be tailored to the streamlined management approach the agency is adopting for the mission.
“It is ambitious. It’s a challenge,” she said of the project and its schedule. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to be successful, but I can tell you we’re doing everything we can to meet the challenge.”
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