General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) just hit a massive milestone that could alter the future of space exploration. The company has successfully trialed a nuclear fuel that could one day ...

Mars has always felt like a distant neighbor, reachable only after a long, risky cruise through deep space. Now engineers inside NASA are sketching a very different future, one where a nuclear powered ...

The first humans to Mars might someday ride a rocket propelled by a nuclear reactor to their destination. But before that can happen, nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) technologies still have quite a ...

I’ve grown up with rockets that burn chemical fuel, but NASA’s next big leap in propulsion could make those engines look as dated as steam trains. By turning to nuclear power in space, the agency is ...

The best, in fact, the only, candidate for this is the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system or nuclear rocket. First conceived of in 1945, this is a rocket that replaces burning chemical fuel with ...

Scientists have developed a new form of nuclear propulsion that they claim could slash mission times to Mars and enable voyages to the farthest reaches of the solar system. A team from Ohio State ...

Share on Facebook (opens in a new window) Share on X (opens in a new window) Share on Reddit (opens in a new window) Share on Hacker News (opens in a new window) Share on Flipboard (opens in a new ...

The USA's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has finalised an agreement with Lockheed Martin to begin work on the fabrication and design of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket and its engine ...

Over the past half-century, the U.S. government has introduced more than 20 efforts to harness nuclear power and propulsion for space operations, only to cancel each one of them. Eric Brown, vice ...

There are some potentially valid criticism about the Nuclear Salt Water Rocket (NSWR). The criticisms highlight real physical constraints. A hydrogenous mixture will moderate neutrons, preventing a ...