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 ...

NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade – but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip. This ...

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 ...

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 ...

NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade — but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip. This ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New developments in nuclear thermal propulsion technologies may soon enable advanced space missions to the farthest reaches of the solar system. Leading these advances are researchers ...

Current chemical propulsion systems necessitate prolonged transit times for crewed Mars missions, driving the exploration of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) as a more efficient alternative to ...

Engineers from Ohio State University are developing a new way to power rocket engines, using liquid uranium for a faster, more efficient form of nuclear propulsion that could deliver round trips to ...

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 ...

New details of the Trump administration’s plans for NASA, released Friday, revealed the White House’s desire to end the development of an experimental nuclear thermal rocket engine that could have ...