Nuclear: The most promising option for mid-range manned space flight.

Nuclear: The most promising option for mid-range manned space flight.

I don't know if the rest of you have been following the exciting work related to the Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage project down at Marshall Space Flight Center or not, but NASA is doing some exciting things that are promising for the concept of a nuclear-powered rocket one day perhaps propelling a manned spacecraft to Mars or other targets of exploration. The concept is that a nuclear cryogenic rocket with liquid-hydrogen propellant super-chilled to very low temperatures at the point of its launch (and making use of conventional chemical rocket technology for its atmospheric travel stage immediately after launch) would, once outside of the mesosphere, engage its nuclear reactor which would in turn super-heat the liquid hydrogen fuel, burning it for the source of trans-solar system propulsion. Thus, the reactor itself would be cold and not emitting hardly any radiation whilst in the atmospheric launch phase and would only be powered up once outside of the atmosphere; at that point, the power-saving advantages of nuclear fuel over conventional chemical rocket fuel would allow a much greater range for the spacecraft and also would produce speeds that would be in excess of what conventional chemical rockets can reasonably provide using current technology and pragmatic size constraints. Read More
http://nuclearstreet.com/pro_nuclear_power_blogs/b/science-history-nuclear/archive/2014/01/22/nuclear-the-most-promising-option-for-mid-range-manned-space-flight.aspx