Kotlyar noted that fueling rockets with nuclear fission will indeed cut the years-long journey to and from Mars by a wide margin.
The highly politicized nature of normal uranium makes it a hot commodity that isn't easy to access, complicating nuclear propulsion development.
The US Department of Energy's Global Threat Reduction Initiative turns highly-enriched uranium into HALEU fuel, which has less fission-capable material.
The use of HALEU fuel for nuclear thermal propulsion makes rockets heavier, countering the main value of relying on lightness for space travel.
Collection
[
|
...
]