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"Project
Orion: a re-imagining by Rhys Taylor"
July
11, 2005
An animation depicting a SRB assisted ground launch of a
4000 ton 'Orion' type nuclear pulse rocket on a manned mission to Mars.
[Video length 2 min. 35 sec. - AVI, QuickTime and Windows Media Player
formats available]
NASA
PROMETHEUS 1 NUCLEAR FISSION: A FIRST STEP PUBLIC COMMENT
by Bruce Behrhorst
- May 11, 2005
NASA with other agencies
test public sentiment before forming initiative of building a space nuclear
program. The quest for added power is in response to the Sun's solar power
which wanes toward the outer solar system.
Safety
Considerations in Space Nuclear Operations
by
Bruce Behrhorst - March 5, 2005
New plan by the U.S. Department of Energy
to consolidate operations for domestic plutonium -238 production reveals
public misconceptions. Isotope Pu-238 is one basic nuclear fuel NASA and
national security depend on to service missions among other vital uses
including medical applications and "Disaster Early Warning System"
power.
Interview
with Tim Frazier, Program Director, Radioisotope Power Systems DOE/EIS
[print view]
2009
Mars Rover will be Nuclear Powered
by James C. Foster - December 12, 2004
The NASA Mars Exploration
Program (MEP) will launch a spaceflight mission to Mars in late 2009 that
will land a nuclear powered roving Mars Science Laboratory on the surface
of the planet.
Full
Article...
Update - December 14, 2004: NASA Selects Investigations for the Mars Science
Laboratory
Project
Prometheus Fully Funded for FY05!
-
December 8, 2004
President Bush signed into law a $16.2
billion budget for NASA, about $822 million increase from 2004. The package
funds the entire Project Prometheus program at $430 million and provides
$10 million for nuclear thermal propulsion at the Marshall Space Flight
Center.
AIAA
SPACE NUCLEAR POWER & PROPULSION ROUNDTABLE
View the discussion via video stream or read the transcript with some
of the professionals in the field of space nuclear technology.
 MAKING
DEEP SPACE AND NUCLEAR ROCKETS SAFE FOR ASTRONAUTS:
PART II
by
Bruce Behrhorst - September 27, 2004
The question of life's existence beyond
Earth remains unanswered in the technical legal sense. To most, the question
is a small consolation for which we already know the answer to.
A bigger question remains to be reconciled if we take
the liberty to say, "Extraterrestrial life forms do exist in our
Solar System down to the cellular level." Could by some extension
a human being adapt to live and thrive on habitats apart from Earth indefinitely?
First a transportation system(s) must be established. Systems that can
guarantee the safe delivery and return of humans in the shortest transit
times possible under the least stressful regime possible.
Interview
with Dr. Francis Cucinotta of Johnson Space Center, NASA [print view]
NUCLEARSPACE
COMPANY PROFILE: THE BOEING COMPANY by
Bruce Behrhorst - April 4, 2004
The nation’s new space policy offers to
re-energize the American public’s desire to explore the cosmos for
evidence of life.
With this bold vision comes the prerequisite for the
country to develop technologies that enable humanity to explore the depths
of the universe safely and more reliably.
A
conversation with Dr. Joe Mills VP of Boeing/JIMO [ print
view ]
Boeing
Project Prometheus available online
TALKING
NUCLEAR SPACE SYSTEMS IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT
by
Bruce Behrhorst - February 25, 2004
 Every
year the Institute of Space Nuclear Power Studies at the University of
New Mexico puts on a three day conference early in February. Called Space
Technology & Applications International Forum (STAIF-2004) . This
year held at the Albuquerque Hilton Hotel.
Full
Report...
Making
Deep Space and Nuclear Rockets Safe for Astronauts: PART
I
by Bruce Behrhorst - December 5, 2003
 As
far back in human history as one would care to go the exposure to radiation
has always existed with Homo Sapiens thus the need to protect people whose
occupation requires them to work or travel among natural or man-made excessive
sources of ionizing radiation anywhere in the Solar System.
A
conversation with Dr. John Wilson of Langley, NASA [
print view ]
What's
Ahead for NASA's Space Nuclear Reactor Plan: Project Prometheus?
- by Bruce Behrhorst- August 13, 2003
Since NASA’s
announcement of Project Prometheus, plans for robust nuclear space systems
were in the offing. The nuclear space community has been elated with renewed
interest. Project Prometheus’s existence for public announcements
initially were muted due to an unfortunate Columbia shuttle mishap.
Full
Article and Interview with Dr. James Powell, Plus Ultra Technologies
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NUCLEAR
SPACE ENGINEER MISSED
Alfred Schock: Chemical, Nuclear Engineer passed on. His
career spanned the development of RTG technology and space nuclear reactors.
The Washington Post Obituary
NUCLEAR
USE POLICY IN SPACE AND ON EARTH: PART
I -and-
PART II
by Bruce Behrhorst- December
7, 2006
Recent overview of domestic nuclear policy as it relates
to energy strategy and national space policy.
MAKING
MARS A HOME AWAY FROM HOME
March
25, 2007
Exploration,
settlement and development have in the past presented themselves
as alternatives to war, providing a means for human societies
to expand their horizon.
Read the Interview with 4FRONTIERS,
VP Joe Palaia
SPACE NUCLEAR
SCIENCE with STEVE HOWE
by Bruce Behrhorst
- July 2 , 2006
Recent conversation with Dr. Howe over developments in
the space nuclear field besides other issues about near term in-space
transport systems .
IS
SPACE NUCLEAR SCIENCE ANY CLOSER TO MISSION A VISION IN SPACE ?
by
Bruce Behrhorst - September 21, 2005
Recent adoption by NASA of a new launch system is promising
for capacity to build infrastructure in space.
But actual development of space nuclear systems seem to lag. Professionals
in space science see great potential for nuclear space science to service
future human and robotic missions.
[Interviews
with DOE/NNSA-NR, also CEO of Space Adventures, Ltd. Eric Anderson]
NASA
Administrator Mike Griffin speaks about nuclear power in space before
U.S. Senate Committee
MAY 12, 2005
"I will say, categorically, we cannot effectively explore
space without nuclear power and, in the longer run, nuclear propulsion."
-NASA Administrator Mike Griffin
OSU
Students Work on Plasma Rocket
Nuclear-powered rocket research could send astronauts to Mars
by MARY ANN ALBRIGHT
- April 11, 2005
 Humans
have yet to walk on Mars, but students at Oregon State University and
Western Oregon University hope their unique nuclear reactor will help
make space travel to the red planet a reality.
NASA is working on a plasma rocket for a Mars voyage, but the space craft
needs a power source. That's where the OSU-WOU Microgravity Flight Team
comes in.
Full
Article...
Russia
Suggests International Nuclear Project to Conquer Outer Space
MosNews - March
3, 2005
 Russia
has suggested a project to the international community to explore outer
space using nuclear installations to send a manned expedition to Mars
in 2017, a top Russian scientist said.
Full
Article...
Exclusive
NuclearSpace.com Gallery Preview:
What if Project Orion had gone ahead in the 1960's?
Conquest
of the Solar System Using the Orion Nuclear Pulse Propulsion - 1960-2001.
"We will explore the
inner and outer solar system as it should have been years ago and achieved
Mans great colonization of most of the systems worlds. Science fiction?
- I wonder."
- Rolando Gutierrez
News:
June 13, 2004 - Get
the latest space exploration efforts courtesy of nuclear power
in space:
Rover
romps on Mars to Saturn visit by Cassini/Huygens.
PRATT & WHITNEY THERMAL NUCLEAR ROCKET ENTRY: TRITON
by
Bruce Behrhorst - October 14, 2004
 Rarely
does nuclear thermal rocketry ever receive the importance it deserves.
Not since the seventies when project Rover/NERVA was put to rest has
the imperative to fulfill political goals in space compare with the lofty
goals of human exploration and commercialization to the far reaches of
our solar system.
Trying to reconcile major tectonic movements on the political landscape
toward support for a nuclear space program seems far more difficult to
achieve than with actual development of nuclear systems with the means
of propulsion and power to bridge our solar system.
Interview
with Russell Joyner, Discipline Chief, Propulsion Systems Analysis and
Integration, The Pratt and Whitney Company [print view]
IS
THERE PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR A NUCLEAR SPACE PROGRAM ?
-
July 7, 2004
NASA's post Columbia accident
period has so far reveled itself to be largely introspective and self
correcting.
It finds itself defining a role within its mandate toward a new
vision.
This comes amid a backdrop of war in Iraq entering a phase of
self determination by its people, domestic corporate scandal, a less than
stellar economy, international security concerns, a contentious U.S. presidential
election this fall.
A flurry of investigative and advisory commissions all designed
to right the agencies' "Ship of space".
Full
Article...
Technical
and Political Life of a Nuclear Rocket
by
Bruce Behrhorst - March 28, 2004
In tribute to
all the men and women from all walks of life in the United States
who came together for a brief period in human history to demonstrate
the potential of the Nuclear Thermal Rocket in the Nevada desert.
Exclusive
interview: author Dr. James Dewar, "To the End of the Solar System"(Story
of the Nuclear Rocket). [print view]
Opening
the Next Frontier
- by Anthony Tate - February 11, 2003
 America
loves its legends. George Washington in Valley Forge. The Wild West. World
War II. The Man on the Moon. But lately, it seems the legends have stopped.
Sure, we have the Internet to play with now, and computers are changing
the world in ways we can scarcely grasp as of yet. The Soviet Union is
no more, and despite our current travails with terrorism, a certain comfortable
familiarity has us in its grip.
Where is the next legend? Where is the next frontier? Or are we just going
to go comfortably off into retirement?
Full
Article...
Nuclear
Space Archives
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