Nuclear Space Propulsion

[Prometheus1354 + 178]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Nuclear-Energy-Could-Power-The-Trillion-Dollar-Space-Race.html

Going back too the days of Apollo; NASA and specifically Dr. Von Braun foresaw a day when mankind would travel across the cosmos. To do this we needed (Still do) a means of propulsion more efficient than chemical rockets.  Enter the Nuclear Rocket engine called NERVA. The contractor team of Westinghouse and Aerojet designed, built and test fired the nuclear rocket engine NERVA. My Dad worked on NERVA at Aerojet after his work on Apollo ended.

Certainly the idea pf nuclear space propulsion didn't die with the end of NERVA.  There have been attempts to re-start the program.  But Why Nukes you ask? Simple,  Time. Or more importantly an attempt to shorten it. As is the Time to go from Earth orbit too say Mars, or the asteroid belt. Even all the way out too the Jovian or Saturian systems.  Just to get too Mars takes 6 mos. if the Earth & Mars are in proper alignment. Then once there you would need to stay on the surface for 18 mos, before starting home. Another 6 mos.  

Chemical propulsion like used on the Mighty Saturn V which took us to the Moon or even in todays Falcon 9 rocket are very inefficient. They make a big boom, but not enough thrust to generate the needed velocity to go faster thus shortening a trip to Mars too just a few weeks.  That's where (in theory) Nukes come in.  They can generate the Specific Impulse (ISP) needed to cut the time now required.

 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

The Saturn V engines were never intended for space travel! They were intended to get the payload sufficiently out of Earths gravitation pull to put things in orbit.

Even an amateur realizes that it would be impossible to carry enough chemical propellant to get to Mars and back.