United States: Nuclear-powered rockets that may transport astronauts to Mars in an instant have been proposed for testing by NASA. The agency said it has teamed up with the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to showcase a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space as early as 2027.

The project aims to create an innovative propulsion system for space travel that is very different from the chemical systems that have been used since the commencement of the modern era of rocketry approximately a century ago.

As part of its Moon to Mars mission, NASA plans to set foot on Mars in the 2030s after successfully testing its modern Artemis spacecraft last year as a launchpad back to the moon and onto the planet. According to Nasa, the 300-mile trip to Mars would take almost seven months using present technology.

Although Mr. Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, stated that nuclear technology will enable spacecraft and humans to travel in deep space at record speed, engineers do not yet know how much time could be saved.

Nuclear electric propulsion systems use propellants much more efficiently than chemical rockets but provide a low amount of thrust, the agency says. A reactor produces the electricity that positively charges xenon or krypton-based gas propellants, forcing the ions via a thruster to propel the spaceship forward.

Nuclear electric propulsion technologies can push a Mars mission for a small fraction of the propellant used by high-thrust systems while accelerating spacecraft for extended periods of time.

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