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Nuclear rockets could get us to Mars in weeks, and they’re almost here

By the year 2035, NASA plans to send humans to Mars. But it would be about a nine-month trip with our current rocket ...
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NASA fires up a lithium-fed thruster at 120 kilowatts — the most powerful electric engine the agency has ever tested for trips to Mars

On February 24, 2026, inside a vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, engineers ignited a thruster that burned lithium metal vapor and reached 120 kilowatts of ...
Digital Journal

NASA gets $125 million to develop nuclear thermal propulsion

The award is part of a total $22.3 billion of funding for NASA in a commerce, justice, and science (CJS) appropriations bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee this month. “The bill’s ...
Digital Journal

Kilopower Project — NASA testing space-rated fission power unit

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing a new generation of modular nuclear reactors that will power manned outposts on the moon and Mars, providing a simple, yet ...
The Conversation

Nasa bets big on nuclear engines to cut journey times to Mars

Nasa is developing ways to use nuclear power to send spacecraft to their destinations. Nuclear propulsion could greatly reduce the journey time to Mars, perhaps cutting a voyage of more than six ...