NASA’s push for a new nuclear rocket engine is not just another upgrade to the hardware we strap to the bottom of spacecraft.

Space agencies are moving closer to a new era of rocket propulsion that could fundamentally change deep-space travel. Nuclear ...

Reaching Alpha Centauri within a single human lifetime has long sounded like science fiction, yet a new generation of nuclear ...

That something is nuclear propulsion. Essentially, a nuclear rocket engine is a reactor that has hydrogen running through it as a propellant, which is heated to an astonishing 3,000 K (2,727 °C, 4,940 ...

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Every year, companies and space agencies launch ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Marcos Fernandez Tous, University of North Dakota; Preeti Nair, University of North ...