PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15955596
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2019-10
Patent Classification: ["060", "203100"]

Abstract:
A fission based nuclear thermal propulsion rocket engine. An embodiment provides a source of fissionable material such as plutonium in a carrier fluid having neutron moderating constituents, such as hydrogen and/or carbon, therein. In various embodiments, the carrier fluid may be methane, or ethane, or a combination thereof. A neutron source is provided, such as from a neutron beam generator. By way of engine design geometry, various embodiments may provide for intersection of neutrons with the fissionable material injected by way of the carrier fluid, while in a reactor provided in the form of a reaction chamber. Impact of neutrons on fissionable material results in a nuclear fission in sub-critical mass reaction conditions in the reactor, resulting in release of heat energy to the materials within the reactor. The reactor is sized and shaped to receive the reactants and an expandable fluids such as hydrogen, and to confine heated and pressurized gases for discharge out through a throat, into a rocket engine expansion nozzle for propulsive discharge. The design provides a rocket engine with a specific impulse in the range of from about eight hundred (800) seconds to about twenty five hundred (2500) seconds.

Claim (Index 26):
A rocket engine, comprising:\n a neutron beam generator; a first fluid storage compartment for storage of a neutron moderating first fluid, and wherein said neutron moderating first fluid comprises methane (CH 4 ), or ethane (C 2 H 6 ), or a mixture thereof; a second fluid storage compartment for storage of a second fluid, wherein said second fluid, before heating, comprises hydrogen (H 2 ); a reactor, said reactor comprising\n (a) a chamber for containing said first fluid and said second fluid during heating, \n (b) a first set of injectors for (i) directing passage into said reactor of said first fluid received from said first fluid storage compartment, wherein said first fluid further comprises at least some fissile material, wherein said fissile material comprises at least some  239 Pu, and (ii) for injecting said first fluid containing at least some  239 Pu into a reaction zone in said reactor, \n (c) a second set of injectors for directing passage into said reactor of said second fluid received from said second fluid storage compartment, \n (d) said reactor further comprising a mixing zone, and wherein said second fluid is injected into said reactor at said mixing zone, said mixing zone located downstream of said reaction zone, and \n (e) an outlet; \n an expansion nozzle, said expansion nozzle connected to said outlet of said reactor; wherein said neutron beam generator is configured to direct neutrons to collide with at least some of said fissile material in said reaction zone, wherein said neutrons and said fissile material interact at a common point in said reactor, to thereby effect fission of at least some of said fissile material at sub-critical mass conditions, and release heat therefrom; wherein said neutron moderating first fluid is provided in an amount sufficient to moderate fission of said fissile material; and wherein said first fluid and said second fluid are contained by and heated in said reaction chamber to produce a heated gas which is released through said outlet and expelled through said expansion nozzle.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 6.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.95495
- Patent Class: 60.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14692349', '14851665', '09782558', '14259734', '13974045']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7437385716171663
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6620239982201868
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7355671142774683
- Mean Citation Score: 438.524662
- Max Citation Score: 679.2054400000002
- Similarity Product: 638.7154874818423

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test