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Article: A fission trip to Mars. (nuclear rockets)
- Article from:
- The Engineer
- Article date:
- May 9, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Centaur Communications Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A fission trip to Mars
FLASH Gordon and Dan Dare flew through the pages of space fiction in mighty atomic rockets. Real astronauts have had to settle for chemically-powered engines, but this is starting to change. Once again scientists are looking seriously at developing nuclear-powered rocket engines that will turn space fiction into space fact.
In the past month it has emerged that the US Department of Defense is funding work on giant nuclear-powered launchers to hoist Star Wars payloads into orbit. At the same time a study group has recommended nuclear power to drive future missions to the Moon and to Mars.
The attraction of a nuclear rocket is ...