Engineers developed an engine prototype which could reach unprecedented speeds, cutting down interplanetary travel time.

While this latest test doesn’t make nuclear-powered rocket engines viable just yet, it’s an important step on the journey.

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

Chemical engines put the first satellite ... 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 ...

This means 2028-2033. Rocket programs that depend upon completely new technology and that technology has to be scaled in size (millions of newtons of thrust or clusters of 250,000 newton engines) and ...

The thermal energy generated by nuclear fission in that reactor would ... three times more efficient than conventional chemical rocket engines," she continued. "We are excited to continue our ...

They are also simply too slow for deep space travel. According to NASA's estimates, spacecraft using existing chemical rocket engines will take a minimum of six to seven months to reach Mars. Going ...

The demonstration rocket’s engine reactor remains ... Osorio says that “qualifying an operational nuclear thermal propulsion engine for space transportation will require a ground-test ...

Like, say, nuclear ... engines at the moment, but several companies are working on solutions to them. General Atomics, for instance, is looking into how nuclear fuel can survive "after thermal ...

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 ...