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Nuclear engines for space rockets soon? First in-space test planned in early 2026. Promises vs risks

Space rockets may soon use nuclear-powered engines based on nuclear thermal propulsion, or NTP technology. While no nuclear engine will fly this year, the field is approaching a major milestone, with ...
What If on MSN

Nuclear rockets could get us to Mars in weeks, and they’re almost here

By the year 2035, NASA plans to send humans to Mars. But it would be about a nine-month trip with our current rocket ...
NextBigFuture

Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engines

There have been full scale nuclear thermal rocket engines built and tested on the ground since the 1960s. The US had the NERVA project. The attraction is that the ISP would be up to triple the ISP of ...
New Atlas

New fuel withstands nuclear thermal propulsion reactor conditions

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has successfully tested the nuclear fuel that may one day propel and power the spacecraft of the future. The trials verify that the fuel can survive ...
autoevolution

Nuclear Engines for B-52s: A Long-Forgotten Bonkers DOD Program That Nearly Happened

You might think the bloggers and YouTubers of the world have already found and profiled every neat or obscure project for a military aircraft that never left the drawing board. But every once in a ...
NextBigFuture

Thin Film Nuclear Rocket With Californium for Fast Gravitational Lensing Missions

Jim Bickford is leading the Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) project to develop a system for propelling a craft through space faster and farther than ever before. This technology has ...
SpaceNews

NASA, DARPA Will Test Nuclear Engine for Future Mars Missions

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced Tuesday a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, an enabling capability for NASA crewed ...
Ars Technica

Some parts of Trump’s proposed budget for NASA are literally draconian

New details of the Trump administration’s plans for NASA, released Friday, revealed the White House’s desire to end the development of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket engine that could have ...
RealClearScience

NASA Can Open Up the Solar System With Nuclear Propulsion

Viewed from orbit, Jackass Flats — situated in southern Nevada about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas — could easily be confused for Mars. The alluvial basin is full of tan and gray regolith, hued ...
The Conversation

Nasa bets big on nuclear engines to cut journey times to Mars

Nasa is developing ways to use nuclear power to send spacecraft to their destinations. Nuclear propulsion could greatly reduce the journey time to Mars, perhaps cutting a voyage of more than six ...
ExtremeTech

NASA Awards Contract to Build Nuclear Rocket Engine

Humanity has lived in the space age for decades, but virtually every probe, rocket, and satellite shaping this era has relied on chemical propulsion. As scientists and engineers eye more distant ...