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I guess I'm not the only one watching For All Mankind this week.

This kind of nuclear research is obviously way less popular these days, but I do wonder if these engines could be made more practically with today's technology. Surely a lot of the dangerous testing could be replaced with simulation.

edit: Looks like there is some research being done, https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2023-07-26

Fission is a hot topic, actually! (sorry, not sorry)

Both the US and China have committed to fission-powered spacecraft in the near term. It’s probably the most important area of superpower space competition in the sense that it’ll enable space resource exploitation far beyond what’s possible with chemical energy alone.

There’s plenty of activity here on Earth as well, with many modern modular reactor designs being evaluated and produced. Reliable power is needed alongside intermittent renewables, even with storage.

>Both the US and China have committed to fission-powered spacecraft in the near term. It’s probably the most important area of superpower space competition in the sense that it’ll enable space resource exploitation far beyond what’s possible with chemical energy alone.

https://www.etec.energy.gov/Operations/Major_Operations/SNAP...

(This was not the RTG of Voyager and other well-known spacecraft)

> edit: Looks like there is some research being done, https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2023-07-26

Lockheed Martin and BWXT will build a demonstrator vehicle that will power up a reactor in space by 2027.

If that timeline holds, then actually seeing a nuclear-powered rocket in space is very near.

>Surely a lot of the dangerous testing could be replaced with simulation

During the cold war, starting in the 1960s, weren't there dozens of fission reactor satellites launched into orbit? I don't mean spontaneous decay devices like RTGs, I mean fission reactors. Primarily, but not exclusively Soviet.

I bring this up because every discussion I see of the risks of nuclear power in space seems to presume an alternate historical record where political opposition prevented it from becoming a reality. Where uncontrolled deorbiting of reactors or disintegration in orbit were hypothetical and unacceptable failures.

I don't know, were we always at war with Eurasia or was it Eastasia? Which history is the disinformation?

It probably got posted because it's today's featured article on Wikipedia.
Tangentially related: https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-tail/
> SNPO envisaged the construction of a 20,000 MW nuclear rocket engine

Spicy.

I always wondered how long until we had nuclear powered helicopters