NASA and General Atomics tested the fuel by exposing it to temperatures up to 3,000 Kelvin (4,940 Fahrenheit or 2,727 Celsius ...

Electromagnetic Systems has successfully tested nuclear fuel that could power future rapid space missions, including trips to ...

An alternative technology to the chemically propelled rockets the agency develops now is called nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses nuclear fission and could one day power a rocket that makes ...

NASA and DARPA announced in 2023 that they were working on a nuclear thermal rocket engine, with a planned launch demonstration as early as 2027. The big drive behind these new propulsion ...

uses a nuclear reactor to provide energy to the rocket. Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) is a top contender for the job, too. The original design is part of research ...

As the heated propellant expands, it’s ultimately exhausted out of a nozzle in much the same way as in a traditional rocket. It’s also similar to the concept of nuclear thermal propulsion ...

NASA recently announced a collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space to reduce transit time for human missions ...

Scientists have thought about attaching nuclear, thermal-rocket engines to ammonia-heavy asteroids and redirecting the asteroids so that they crash into Mars and release the meteor's ammonia and ...