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[Music]

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hi I'm Marvin Barnes and I'm the

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principal investigator for this SIF

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project together we're developing

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nuclear fuel for nuclear rocket engines

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in FY 18 we were awarded center

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innovation funding to fabricate test and

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characterize nuclear fuel samples this

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work is being performed as a

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collaboration with the University of

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Tennessee where advanced

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characterization is taking place in

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house we're doing the fabrication and

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the testing of these fuel materials my

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name is taylor Duffin I'm a graduate

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student from University of Tennessee in

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Knoxville our sip project supports

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nuclear thermal propulsion NTP is an

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in-space propulsion technology which is

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useful for supporting crewed missions

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beyond low-earth orbit to Mars if we use

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NTP we can reduce our travel times and

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harmful effects to our astronauts the

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fuel for NTP is one of the major

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limiting factors in this SIF we're

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developing a molybdenum sermon or

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ceramic metallic fuels as an alternative

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to tungsten these molybdenum fuels will

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be more affordable than tungsten based

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one the main objective for this project

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is to identify the maximum use

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temperature for molybdenum sarmento

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fuels in both thermal cycling and

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steady-state conditions in the

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molybdenum Cir matte powder blending

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process we have molybdenum ceramic fuel

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element and the binder mixed together

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and the binder is there to hold

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everything together nicely then they are

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mixed in the turbulent heated and

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stirred to produce an even coating this

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allows for optimal fuel performance we

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turn our powders into solid samples

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using spark plasma sintering we are

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optimizing time temperature and pressure

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to make fully dense samples with the

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best micro structures we perform high

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temperature testing on our samples in C

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feet up to 2500 Kelvin and low flowing

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hydrogen to simulate the conditions in

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the nuclear rocket engine we observe the

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mass loss to the sample and then

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characterize the

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Appl microstrain jizz that have occurred

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by advanced microscopy through this

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project we are able to produce high

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density molybdenum sermonette fuels with

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desirable micro structures we will be

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recommending maximum use temperatures

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derived from testing data thank you for

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the funding we hope that the technology

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developed through the SIF project will