Why can’t we build nuclear powered rockets in order to reach the moon or mars and the beyond?
We have nuclear powered subs, aircraft carriers etc.
I read the US tried in the early years of the Cold War but cancelled the program.
What gives?
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Spacecraft accidents happen WAY more often than ocean going ships. Think of the Challenger of Columbia shuttles exploding on launch or reentering atmosphere. Now make it radioactive. The other issue is turning the energy into usable thrust. Ships like submarines or aircraft carriers do this easily by simply utilizing their reactors to power a steam engine. It works essentially the same as a coal powered ship of yesteryear, but uses the heat from the reactor instead of burning coal. Using that energy to spin a propeller is easy. Using it to exit a gravity well, less so.
All that said we DO use nuclear power in space, to power long range probes. All of our long range space probes use a small radioactive “battery” to generate power over the long mission lengths these probes have.
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