Mission Brief: Antares | Nominal

We use cookies. Read more about cookies in our privacy policy (opens in a new tab)
Keeps the site working and remembers these choices. Always on.
Tells us which pages are read and which links are used, so we can improve the site.
Measures our campaigns on other sites, such as LinkedIn and Google.
Antares is preparing for a future of resilient power in any setting – on Earth or beyond. With Nominal’s edge automation, storage, and analytics layers, they unify real-time testing, long-term data retention, and remote autonomy in a single loop. From the first sensor readout to final operational oversight, Antares now tests continuously on every reactor they build.
Reliable, resilient energy is the backbone of national security. Without it, there is no mission assurance.
Our materials have to operate in some of the most extreme environments imaginable. The ability to swiftly and accurately test our lab-scale demonstration builds has been critical to evaluating new hardware and iterating designs at our rapid pace. We needed a continuous approach that captured every reading – no matter how fast or remote.
Antares’ micro-reactors rely on complex thermal management systems to transfer heat to the power conversion system – conducting through the core to the graphite moderator under neutron impingement and irradiation. Thermal energy is then transported into a phase-changing fluid in the heat pipe to the primary heat exchanger, where a working fluid absorbs the heat ahead of later expansion in the cycle’s turbomachinery. The test setup is instrumented with flow meters, thermocouples, and pressure transducers to capture multiple signals in real time, characterizing the system’s performance. Antares needed a continuous testing and data acquisition approach that could:
Thermocouples feed controllers to make sure temperatures and power rates are within safe margins. If signals drift, Nominal flags the deviation and can trigger an automatic abort, cooldown, or reconfiguration. Operators can watch every wave, but the system executes with or without on-site staff.
All timestamps and measurements flow into Nominal’s data warehouse. In-house software can tap this data in real time – no more rummaging through scattered logs. R&D and production lines share the same source of truth, with consistent tags and versioning on every test.
Antares teams across multiple states collaborate while overlaying current waveforms on historical runs, spotting microtrends or repeat anomalies. As designs move from R&D to manufacturing certification, the same test approach follows. Predictive checks and automated defect detection unify the entire workflow – synchronizing data from test cells, final acceptance, and operational monitoring.
Immediate Feedback. Constant checks catch thermal anomalies before they threaten safety or performance.
Shared Data, No Bottlenecks. Engineers see the same data at the same time, creating a live feedback loop from design to production.
Faster Iteration & Certification. Moderators move through tests more often with fewer manual steps—scaling capacity in lockstep with reactor manufacturing.
Nominal has been a game changer for sharing data in our testing. It allows for live streaming and almost instantaneous sharing between us and our partners across the country.
Antares is preparing for a future of resilient power in any setting – on Earth or beyond. With Nominal’s edge automation, storage, and analytics layers, they unify real-time testing, long-term data retention, and remote autonomy in a single loop. From the first sensor readout to final operational oversight, Antares now tests continuously on every reactor they build.
All Reactors Nominal.
How Odys Aviation built the data infrastructure for an aircraft no one else has built.
Nominal, Inc · Hardware intelligence platform