A team of Idaho National Laboratory engineers is developing the technology to cut travel times to Mars in half. Here's why.
A team of Idaho National Laboratory engineers is developing the technology to cut travel times to Mars in half. Here’s why.
“Nuclear propulsion can provide the most capable means of delivering large-mass payloads to Mars in the shortest amount of time,” Sebastian Corbisiero, senior technical advisor for advanced concepts at INL, toldA team of scientists and engineers at the U.S. Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory holds the outcome of a new space race in its hands.
In a bid to develop the fastest and most efficient method for interplanetary space travel, the INL engineers chose to focus on nuclear thermal propulsion. It is capable of powering larger spacecraft, which is essential given the amount of cargo a human mission would have to take along for the ride. “With the reduction in transit time that nuclear thermal propulsion can provide, that makes life safer for the humans on board,” he continued.
“So, in addition to potential technologies that DRACO would develop, any future nuclear reactor project will have the benefit of DRACO laying a path for policy and licensing approaches, such as getting approval to launch,” he continued. “Navigating the logistics and approval to launch is a key step in any nuclear space project.”
The nation reportedly aims to quickly follow the first landing on the planet with more missions, allowing it to extract resources from Mars’s surface and build a permanent colony.
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