Nuclear rockets could travel to Mars in half the time − but designing the reactors that would power them isn't easy

[Admin]

Fission technology is well established in power generation and nuclear-powered submarines, and its application to drive or power a rocket could one day give NASA a faster, more powerful alternative to chemically driven rockets.

Nuclear rockets could travel to Mars in half the time − but designing the reactors that would power them isn't easy : Read more

 

[Unclear Engineer]

It would be a lot easier if they just went ahead and used highly enriched uranium for the reactor. These reactors are not going to be used where they could be stolen by non-nuclear states so that they could lead to "proliferation" of atomic weapons in currently non-nuclear countries.

And, anyway, the countries like North Korea and Iran are developing nuclear weapons anyway, as did India and Pakistan.

So, I do not see any realistic reason to not use the best possible materials for space exploration vehicles. We aren't going to return these thing to Earth's surface once they have gone critical and produced power and radioactive byproducts.

 

[Passacaglia]

Most likely reaction mass will be hydrogen (as shown in the diagram) and not oxygen (as stated in the text).

 

[newtons_laws]

It would be a lot easier if they just went ahead and used highly enriched uranium for the reactor. These reactors are not going to be used where they could be stolen by non-nuclear states so that they could lead to "proliferation" of atomic weapons in currently non-nuclear countries.

And, anyway, the countries like North Korea and Iran are developing nuclear weapons anyway, as did India and Pakistan.

So, I do not see any realistic reason to not use the best possible materials for space exploration vehicles. We aren't going to return these thing to Earth's surface once they have gone critical and produced power and radioactive byproducts.

Your argument has a lot of merit. I believe the HALEU fuel being considered has about 20% U235 enrichment.