Artist’s concept of a Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket in Low Earth Orbit. Credit: NASA

The Solar System is a really big place, and it takes forever to travel from world to world with traditional chemical rockets. But one technique, developed back in the 1960s might provide a way to dramatically shorten our travel times: nuclear rockets.

Of course, launching a rocket powered by radioactive material has its own risks as well. Should we attempt it?

On May 22, 2019, US Congress approved $125 million dollars in funding for the development of nuclear thermal propulsion rockets. Although this program doesn’t have any role to play in NASA’s Artemis 2024 return to the Moon, it – quote – “calls upon NASA to develop a multi-year plan that enables a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstration including the timeline associated with the space demonstration and a description of future missions and propulsion and power systems enabled by this capability.”