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 ...

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 ...

NASA is still shooting for the Red Planet, aiming to get astronauts there by the late 2030s or early 2040s. And it still views nuclear thermal propulsion as a key breakthrough that could make this ...

NASA's initiatives to pioneer next-generation space technologies are also hit hard in the White House's budget proposal. If ...

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 ...

A nuclear thermal rocket engine in development could one day transport humans to Mars. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the US Department of Defense, and NASA are ...

NASA wants to design and demonstrate a working nuclear thermal rocket by 2027. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson introduced the project on Tuesday (Jan. 24) during a presentation at the 2023 American ...

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 ...

Nuclear thermal propulsion, or NTP, is a potentially game-changing technology for NASA's crewed missions to Mars in the 2040 timeframe. NTP engines use a nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen to ultra ...

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) has stood as a promising potential alternative propulsion technology for decades. Chemical rockets have begun to reach their theoretical maximum efficiency, and ...

First conceived of in 1945, this is a rocket that replaces burning chemical fuel with a nuclear reactor that is used to heat up a propellant. This propellant is most likely hydrogen, though ...

NASA and the DARPA’s Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program intends to use this high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel in its nuclear thermal propulsion engine. The ...