A nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) is a type of thermal rocket where the heat from a nuclear reaction replaces the chemical energy of the propellants in a...

(Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications), a US nuclear thermal rocket program Project Rover, an American project to develop a nuclear thermal rocket...

A nuclear electric rocket (more properly nuclear electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion system where thermal energy from a nuclear reactor...

The nuclear salt-water rocket (NSWR) is a theoretical type of nuclear thermal rocket designed by Robert Zubrin. In place of traditional chemical propellant...

A pulsed nuclear thermal rocket is a type of nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) concept developed at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, and presented...

which is then exhausted through a rocket nozzle to produce thrust. They are similar in nature to nuclear thermal rockets such as NERVA, but are considerably...

abilities of current technologies. In traditional nuclear thermal rocket and related designs, the nuclear energy is generated in some form of reactor and...

A thermal rocket is a rocket engine that uses a propellant that is externally heated before being passed through a nozzle to produce thrust, as opposed...

Nuclear power in space Nuclear propulsion Nuclear thermal rocket Project Pluto Pulsed nuclear thermal rocket Stellarator Bonometti, Joseph A.; P. Jeff...

The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA; /ˈnɜːrvə/) was a nuclear thermal rocket engine development program that ran for roughly two...

launch. In 2023, NASA joined the DARPA program in developing the nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) to carry astronaut crews to deep-space destinations like Mars...

capabilities, and much larger and more complex rockets. Fusion nuclear pulse propulsion is one approach to using nuclear fusion energy to provide propulsion. Fusion's...

non-combusting forms such as cold gas thrusters and nuclear thermal rockets also exist. Vehicles propelled by rocket engines are commonly used by ballistic missiles...

suggested for nuclear electric rockets. Antimatter annihilations are used to directly or indirectly heat a working fluid, as in a nuclear thermal rocket, but the...

A solar thermal rocket is a theoretical spacecraft propulsion system that would make use of solar power to directly heat reaction mass, and therefore would...

Another challenge is plasma erosion. While in operation the plasma can thermally ablate the walls of the thruster cavity and support structure, which can...

In a traditional nuclear photonic rocket, an onboard nuclear reactor would generate such high temperatures that the blackbody radiation from the reactor...

Specifically it would be a type of gas core reactor rocket that uses a quartz wall to separate nuclear fuel from coolant/propellant. It would be operated...

developed during nuclear fusion research. VASIMR is intended to bridge the gap between high thrust, low specific impulse chemical rockets and low thrust...

of the more explored concepts is the nuclear thermal rocket, which was ground tested in the NERVA program. Nuclear pulse propulsion was the subject of...

A monopropellant rocket (or "monochemical rocket") is a rocket that uses a single chemical as its propellant. Monopropellant rockets are commonly used...

tripropellant rocket is a rocket that uses three propellants, as opposed to the more common bipropellant rocket or monopropellant rocket designs, which...

core. Consequently, nuclear gas core reactors can provide much higher temperatures to the propellant. Solid core nuclear thermal rockets can develop higher...

to develop a megawatt-scale nuclear reactor for the use aboard a crewed spaceship were announced in 2009 by Russian nuclear Kurchatov Institute, national...

is either pulsed or continuous. A continuous beam lends itself to thermal rockets, photonic thrusters, and light sails. In contrast, a pulsed beam lends...

a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a...

planets of the Solar System (with nuclear power), but is insufficient for interstellar travel. An electric rocket with an external power source (transmissible...

vehicle is also possible. Rocket efficiency is strongly related to the mass of the working mass used, which in this case is the nuclear fuel. The energy released...

A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), also known as a Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR), or as a plasma jet engine (PJE), is a form of electric spacecraft propulsion...

to below 10% of the entire rocket's wet mass (mass of rocket with fuel). In a nuclear thermal rocket or solar thermal rocket a working fluid, usually hydrogen...