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The US government is taking a serious step toward space-based nuclear propulsion (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by thejml@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Four years from now, if all goes well, a nuclear-powered rocket engine will launch into space for the first time. The rocket itself will be conventional, but the payload boosted into orbit will be a different matter.

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[–] ddonuts4@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Sounds risky AF

If the rocket explodes, nuclear fuel could fall back to earth
If not de-orbited properly, the nuclear fuel could end up scattered across a country - This already happened... multiple times... in 1973 1977, 1983
If something goes wrong in orbit, now we have radioactive space junk... numerous accidents have already happened many times

[–] arditty@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

As with any technological advancement , there are risks, but if humanity is ever intending to become a spacefairing species, we will have to make peace with nuclear energy. It’s the only technology that comes anywhere close to making interplanetary travel feasible at large scale.

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