Nuclear powered space flights may be closer than they seem

America has a budget of 500 million to test the concept by 2027

- ADAM MINTER

What's a government space agency like America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) supposed to do if private companies like SpaceX get all the spacefaring glory? One option is to double down on investments in leading-edge advancements that may not pay off for years. Superfast and manoeuvrable nuclear-powered rocket engines are one such technology. Last month, Nasa, partnering with the US Department of Defense, gave Lockheed Martin nearly $500 million to build and test one by 2027.

Without this collaboration, two things could be in jeopardy: Nasa's dream of putting boots down in more parts of the solar system and the US's upper hand in outerspace warfare.

For nearly a century, rockets have operated in a fundamentally similar manner: A tank stores fuel that, when ignited, spits out a nozzle at high speed and creates thrust. The problem is, anything you might want to do with a spacecraft, such as manoeuvre towards Mars, requires lots of fuel, and because there are no gas stations in outer space (yet), a craft must carry as much fuel as its operators expect it will need for the duration of its mission.