Sedna will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2076, giving us a rare opportunity to visit the planetoid before it drifts ...

Scientists and engineers are diligently working on innovative concepts to make the next era of human spaceflight more powerful and more efficient using nuclear propulsion. One of these designs, known ...

Solar thermal propulsion looked like the best option. “It’s taken me back to my SpaceX Raptor days, where we can move fast and break things, and iterate more quickly,” he said.

In the frozen outskirts of the solar system, a reddish dwarf planet orbits in silence. Known as Sedna, it is so distant that ...

The NSWR is also fission-based and promising but less mature. Fusion-based propulsion (e.g., Daedalus) offers superior potential but awaits technological breakthroughs. Beamed power to ion drives or ...

Debrief: Can Solar Thermal Propulsion Eclipse Nuclear In Spacecraft? is available to both Aviation Week & Space Technology and AWIN subscribers. Subscribe now to read this content, ...

Recent advancements in nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) technology could make future human missions to Mars significantly faster, potentially cutting the travel time in half compared to ...

Furthermore, prototypes of solar thermal propulsion tech, made with special materials capable of withstanding high temperatures (2,800 degrees Kelvin/2,500 Celsius), have already been built and ...

A new type of nuclear thermal propulsion reactor fuel has been successfully tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, with hopes that the fuel could take humans to Mars in the not-too ...

Nuclear thermal propulsion is a technology that can double the propellant efficiency of chemical rockets, cutting travel time by half. In a nuclear thermal rocket engine, a fission reactor ...