MIT Technology Review Narrated NASA is building the first nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft. How will it work?
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May 13, 2026 A look at NASA's plan to fly a reactor-powered spacecraft to Mars and the tight 2028 timeline. Why reactors can outpower solar and RTGs and how fission would be turned into electricity in space. A tour of past space-reactor experiments and why many programs stalled. The trade-offs between nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion and the engineering challenges of launch, heat radiators, and radiation safety.
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Nuclear Power Raises Deep Space Range And Speed
- Nuclear reactors in space offer orders-of-magnitude higher energy density than chemical fuels, enabling much longer and faster interplanetary flight.
- Experts like Simon Middlebrook and Lindsay Holmes stress this efficiency makes deep-space missions faster and reduces reliance on sunlight for power.
Historical Programs Show Hard Lessons And Cancellations
- Past U.S. space reactors were limited: SNAP-10A ran just over a month in 1965 before failure, while the USSR flew many reactor-equipped satellites.
- Decades of canceled programs show technical, cost, and testing-safety hurdles persist despite feasibility.
NTP Versus NEP Tradeoffs
- Two main space nuclear propulsion approaches are nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) and nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), each trading thrust for efficiency.
- NTP heats hydrogen through a reactor for high thrust; NEP converts reactor heat to electricity to power efficient low-thrust electric drives.