NASA to test nuclear thermal rocket engine for the first time in 50 years

[Aeson]

NASA to test nuclear thermal rocket engine for the first time in 50 years | CNN

NASA and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the US Defense Department, are once again setting their sights on a type of rocket engine that could be the holy grail for quickly and safely getting humans to Mars.

www.cnn.com

Let's ride that bomb to Mars. ALL ABOARD!

 

[AnotherGuy]

What happened to getting people to the moon safely, did we give up already?

 

[Aeson]

They can't work on more than one project at a time? Artemis is in progress. They just did an unmanned orbit with the Orion module.

 

[Umbran]

What happened to getting people to the moon safely, did we give up already?

No. But new propulsion systems have a loooooong development lead time.

 

[AnotherGuy]

They can't work on more than one project at a time?

Absolutely they can. Just thought given their delay with manned missions in the Artemis missions and the financial climate that exists they may not want to stretch themselves too thin resulting in the unnessary feeding of a bottomless pit of taxpayer money with nothing to show for it.

 

[Ryujin]

Bet they start up that Queller Drive on launch and sterilize Florida.

 

[Aeson]

Bet they start up that Queller Drive on launch and sterilize Florida.

Don't get my hopes up like that.

 

[Ryujin]

Don't get my hopes up like that.

Florida Man abides.

 

[MarkB]

For the first time in fifty years? I hope they changed the oil at least.

 

[Umbran]

Absolutely they can. Just thought given their delay with manned missions in the Artemis missions and the financial climate that exists they may not want to stretch themselves too thin resulting in the unnessary feeding of a bottomless pit of taxpayer money with nothing to show for it.

Designing a new nuclear rocket, and testing a conventional one up to rating to carry passengers, are not terribly similar endeavors, so I don't expect there's a lot of overlap that would be "stretching thin".

NASA has bottomless pits of money because they are forced to be so incredibly risk-averse that they cannot make mistakes to learn from, which slows them down. This, as compared to SpaceX, which can blow up or lose rocket after rocket as part of their learning process.