NASA has completed over 100 cold-flow tests of a full-scale nuclear rocket reactor prototype, demonstrating stable hydrogen ...

Phoebus 2A, the most powerful space nuclear reactor ever made, was fired up at Nevada Test Site on June 26, 1968. The test lasted 750 seconds and confirmed it could carry first humans to Mars. But ...

Scientists and engineers are diligently working on innovative concepts to make the next era of human spaceflight more powerful and more efficient using nuclear propulsion. One of these designs, known ...

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 ...

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 ...

That something is nuclear propulsion. Essentially, a nuclear rocket engine is a reactor that has hydrogen running through it as a propellant, which is heated to an astonishing 3,000 K (2,727 °C, 4,940 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Russia is building a nuclear-powered rocket. According to state-owned media outlet Russia Today, the Keldysh Research Center is developing a new type of space vehicle called the Transport and Energy ...

Introduction -- Rocket engine fundamentals -- Nuclear rocket engine cycles -- Interplanetary mission analysis -- Basic nuclear structure and processes -- Neutron flux energy distribution -- Neutron ...