Getting to Mars at 3X speed of a conventional rocket

the year 2035

nasa plans to send humans to mars

but it would be about a nine month trip

with our current rocket technology

however in the not so distant future

we could be replacing chemical engines

with nuclear thermal propulsion

that would take you to mars in just

three months

what are the risks of using nuclear

propulsion

how would it work and have we

ever used nuclear energy in space before

this is what if and here's what would

happen

if we had nuclear powered rockets

nuclear propulsion would open up space

exploration but

there are some serious challenges that

we would have to overcome

first the nuclear engines would need to

be

safe and lightweight and that isn't

easy to achieve since they'd be

operating at a temperature of

2430 degrees

and this wouldn't be the first time we

would try using nuclear power

in space in 1958

project orion was a rocket design that

tested a nuclear propulsion system

and let me tell you it was bizarre

instead of using anything that resembles

our

current rocket engine project orion

used blast waves to propel the spaceship

forward

yeah you heard me blast waves

orion would eject small nuclear bombs

behind it

one at a time a few seconds later

boom the coffee can sized bomb detonated

plasma from the explosion would catch up

with

orion's back then hit a thick

shock absorbing plate this would protect

the ship from the radiation

and move it forward every time a bomb

detonated

the space vessel would gain speed

the idea was that by using this

technology

you could increase velocity so much that

you could reach any point in the solar

system

in one year but the idea of

casually detonating nuclear bombs in

space

didn't sit well with a public that

already feared nuclear power

so project orion was terminated fast

forward to today

and we have a new opportunity to use

nuclear power in space

but not by using bombs

which i'm pretty thankful for i don't

know about you but the idea of bombs

exploding in space

doesn't sound like a good long-term plan

to me

the only bombs i like are these ones

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what if that's 25 off your membership

at fitbot.me what if

instead of using bombs to get to mars

we'd use

a nuclear thermal propulsion system with

a reactor core

this reactor core would be eight times

hotter than nuclear power plant cores

it would heat fuel in this case liquid

hydrogen

to 2430 degrees

turning it into a gas and creating

thrust

right now the nuclear thermal propulsion

system would use

fission to heat the reactor core fission

splits a larger atom usually uranium

into at least two smaller atoms

but in the future when we've got the

right technology

we could use fusion instead fusion is

the opposite of fission

it would join at least two smaller atoms

into a bigger one releasing up to four

times more energy than fission

that would be one energetic rocket

wow that's very impressive and

a quicker space trip wouldn't just be

convenient it would

also be safer for the crew astronauts

are exposed to cosmic radiation when

they're in space

which can cause serious long-term health

issues

radiation shielding could help but it's

extremely heavy

and the longer the mission the more

shielding you'd need

so by reducing your time spent in space

you'd limit the crew's health risks and

the mission would cost less and

we'd use these rockets for more than

transportation

once a rocket has reached its

destination

the nuclear reactor could switch from a

propulsion system

to a power source so

what are the drawbacks to nuclear

thermal propulsion

well you could only use this system when

the vessel is in space

it would still need chemical thrusters

to leave earth

there could be a lot of radiation

effects so the farther away from

earth's atmosphere it is before the ntp

systems switch on

the better and the word nuclear

sets off a lot of alarm bells we'd be

dealing with

explosive radioactive material after all

but the nuclear propulsion system would

be designed so that

even if there were a launch failure

only a minimum amount of uranium would

disperse

reducing any radioactive spills

scientists have studied this type of

engine since the late 1950s but

it hasn't flown in space yet regulations

and

lack of funding have slowed its

development

but in 2019 nasa

received 100 million dollars to

develop nuclear thermal propulsion

making their

2035 plan of sending humans to mars

much more achievable nuclear energy

could be the future of space exploration