An article in 2023 by Bob McDonald of the Canadian Broadcasting System was headed: "Nuclear powered rockets could take us to Mars, but will the public accept them?"
"Nuclear rockets are not a new idea," it noted. "Now, with the prospect of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s, the idea is being revived in an effort to shorten the roughly seven months it takes a conventional rocket to get to Mars. This might be a boon for future astronauts who face a seven-month, one-way journey using current technology."
"The idea is to use a small fission reactor to heat up a liquid fuel to very high temperatures, turning it into a hot gas that would shoot out a rocket nozzle at high velocity, providing thrust," it continued.
"The design of a nuclear rocket means they typically would produce less thrust than a chemical rocket, but nuclear engines could run continuously for weeks, constantly accelerating, ultimately reaching higher velocities in a tortoise-and-hare kind of way. Nuclear propulsion is expected to be twice as fuel-efficient as chemical rockets, largely because they can heat the gas they use for thrust to a higher temperature than chemical combustion, and hotter gas means more energy."
"A quicker trip to Mars provides huge benefits. Astronauts would be exposed to less cosmic radiation during the journey. The psychological pressures of living in a confined space far from home would be reduced. Supplies and a rescue mission could be delivered more quickly. These rockets could also open up the outer solar system so trips to Jupiter and its large family of icy moons could eventually be within reach," the piece went on.
"While the technology of nuclear propulsion is certainly feasible, it may not be readily embraced by the public. The accidents at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima have left many people skeptical about nuclear safety. And there will be risk," said the piece.
"Technicians at the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1964 testing a nozzle design for a nuclear thermal rocket. A nuclear rocket wouldn't be used to launch a spacecraft from the Earth's surface -- it would be designed to run in space only. It would have to launch into orbit on a large chemical rocket -- so the public would have to accept the risk of launching a nuclear reactor on a standard rocket filled with explosive fuel."
"And rockets have and will malfunction catastrophically, in what with black humor rocket scientists sometimes call RUD-- 'rapid unscheduled disassembly.'"
"No one wants to see nuclear debris raining down on the Florida coast or Disneyland, and that's not the only possible scenario. An accident in orbit could potentially drop radioactive material into the atmosphere. These safety concerns need to be addressed before any nuclear rocket leaves the ground," said the article.
Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network since its formation, cites in the past NASA "postponing a test of a nuclear-powered spacecraft just above the Earth. They weren't allowed to test it on Earth because of its potential for spreading contamination widely, so they intended to test it over our heads. There were concerns about the technology failing, and it falling, burning up on re-entry. At the present time there is no schedule to do those tests, but I'm sure they're pushing ahead to do them as quickly as possible."
"Besides the problem of an accident," said Gagnon, "the production process for nuclear space devices leads to radioactive contamination in the laboratories where they takes place and in air and water."
In 2015 Gagnon said: "The nuclear industry views space as a new market for their deadly product. Nuclear generators on space missions, nuclear-powered mining colonies on Mars and other planetary bodies and even nuclear reactors on rockets to Mars are being sought. Thus, there are many opportunities for things to go wrong."
If things go wrong, these "anomalies" could be major.
NASA's March 24 announcement also said: "When SR-1 Freedom reaches Mars, it will deploy the Skyfall payload of Ingenuity"'class helicopters to continue exploring the Red Planet. SR-1 Freedom will establish flight heritage nuclear hardware, set regulatory and launch precedent, and activate the industrial base for future fission power systems across propulsion, surface, and long"'duration missions. NASA and its U.S. Department of Energy partner will unlock the capabilities required for sustained exploration beyond the Moon and eventual journeys to Mars and the outer solar system."
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