Space Fission System Test Effectiveness

Space fission technology has the potential to enable rapid access to any point in the solar system. If fission propulsion systems are to be developed to their full potential, however, near‐term customers need to be identified and initial fission systems successfully developed, launched, and utilized. One key to successful utilization is to develop reactor designs that are highly testable. Testable reactor designs have a much higher probability of being successfully converted from paper concepts to working space hardware than do designs which are difficult or impossible to realistically test. “Test Effectiveness” is one measure of the ability to realistically test a space reactor system. The objective of this paper is to discuss test effectiveness as applied to the design, development, flight qualification, and acceptance testing of space fission systems. The ability to perform highly effective testing would be particularly important to the success of any near‐term mission, such as NASA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, the first mission under study within NASA’s Project Prometheus, the Nuclear Systems Program.