"NASA is looking to go to Mars with this system."

Four years from now, if all goes well, a nuclear-powered rocket engine will launch into space for the first time. The rocket itself will be conventional, but the payload boosted into orbit will be a different matter.

  • ddonuts4@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Sounds risky AF

    • If the rocket explodes, nuclear fuel could fall back to earth
    • If not de-orbited properly, the nuclear fuel could end up scattered across a country - This already happened… multiple times… in 1973 1977, 1983
    • If something goes wrong in orbit, now we have radioactive space junk… numerous accidents have already happened many times
    • arditty@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      As with any technological advancement , there are risks, but if humanity is ever intending to become a spacefairing species, we will have to make peace with nuclear energy. It’s the only technology that comes anywhere close to making interplanetary travel feasible at large scale.