Scientists have long proposed nuclear fission-fueled rockets to get to Mars fast — but one is warning that making it happen will be an uphill battle.
In an explainer for The Conversation, nuclear engineering expert Dan Kotlyar noted that fueling rockets with nuclear fission, which results from the energy emanated from splitting atoms, will indeed cut the years-long journey to and from Mars by a wide margin.
One of the chemical compounds that goes into the production of nuclear fuel, however, makes those dreams difficult to achieve.
Kotlyar, a nuclear and radiological engineering assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, pointed out that the United States government and major companies like General Electric funded development into nuclear thermal propulsion technology. READ MORE...
