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Space travel beyond our moon will require a huge shift in space propulsion.
That s partly because quicker flights mean crews are exposed to less radiation during the journey.
A couple of ideas are in the works to achieve that: nuclear thermal propulsion and ion propulsion.
The future of human space exploration, such as visiting our moon or even Mars, could be essential for upcoming generations. But despite that and the recent renewed interest in space travel thanks to companies like SpaceX, humans traveling beyond our moon will require a paradigm shift in space propulsion.
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Man to reach Mars in 3 months, NASA working on nuclear rocket
By the year 2035, the American Space Organization, NASA is planning to land a man on Mars. However, it is not easy to get to this planet which is about 22 million km away from the Earth and to come back from there. The environment of Mars is completely hostile to humans. The temperature in mars is cold as Antarctica, while there is no oxygen. In such adverse circumstances, there is a great risk of landing on Mars and returning from there. The risk will be increased in long journeys. This is the reason that scientists are thinking of ways to cut down on the time of Mars visit.
Nuclear-Powered Rocket Proposed For Mars Travel wltz.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wltz.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
4 February 2021, 7:35 am EST By
The trip to Mars will be long and arduous for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts, that s why the space agency is looking at possible solutions to help shorten travel time, and among the possibilities is using a nuclear-powered rocket.
(Photo : Aynur Zakirov from Pixabay )
USNC-Tech proposed using nuclear-powered rocket to shorten travel time to Mars.
Dangers of Prolonged Space Travel
According to CNN, the proposal to use a nuclear-powered rocket comes from the company called Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech), which is based in Seattle, Washington, United States.
The company proposed using nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engine to bring humans to Mars, which NASA is planning to achieve by 2035.