Engineers say a nuclear thermal rocket could cut astronauts' travel time to Mars from nine months to two. Credit: NASA NASA and the U.S. military plan to test a nuclear-powered rocket engine in ...

As we set our sights on crewed Mars missions, we're going to have to consider some next-level rocket engines. One idea with a lot of potential is nuclear thermal propulsion.

Scientists have been investigating nuclear thermal propulsion since the 1960s. When the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application program was active, Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists ...

Research into nuclear thermal rocket engines by NASA began in 1959. A key program in the 1960s, called the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, even sought to demonstrate the technology ...

The nuclear thermal rocket would allow transit between the moon and Mars to take less time while also reducing the risk for astronauts. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaks during a visit to the ...

Scientists have proposed two experimental spacecraft that could reach one of the farthest known objects in the solar system ...

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) is the preferred propulsion technology for manned missions throughout the solar system. The state-of-the-art NTP cycle is based on solid core Nuclear Engine for Rocket ...

The Pentagon is funding the world’s first nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system for spacecraft. The goal is to send the rocket into low-Earth orbit in 2025.

Nuclear thermal rocket could speed travel in space by about 2 to 5 times and reduce travel time. DARPA says that the nuclear thermal rocket offers a thrust-to-weight ratio 10,000 times greater than ...

Nuclear thermal engines use a nuclear reaction to heat pure hydrogen, ideally to 2,800 degrees Kelvin (4,580 degrees Fahrenheit). This rapidly expands the hydrogen, which shoots out a nozzle to ...

Nuclear thermal propulsion is a technology that can double the propellant efficiency of chemical rockets, cutting travel time by half. In a nuclear thermal rocket engine, a fission reactor ...