Most of us have heard of Project Orion (nuclear pulse rockets) but I had not heard of Project Nerva before.

According to Wiki, this is was in fairly late stage development before being cancelled by NASA in the 70s because of massive budget cuts. This technology was seriously looked at, for powering manned missions to Mars.

The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) was a U.S. nuclear thermal rocket engine development program that ran for roughly two decades. NERVA was a joint effort of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and NASA, managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) until both the program and the office ended at the end of 1972.

NERVA demonstrated that nuclear thermal rocket engines were a feasible and reliable tool for space exploration, and at the end of 1968 SNPO certified that the latest NERVA engine, the NRX/XE, met the requirements for a manned Mars mission. Although NERVA engines were built and tested as much as possible with flight-certified components and the engine was deemed ready for integration into a spacecraft, much of the U.S. space program was cancelled by Congress before a manned visit to Mars could take place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA

looks very cool

(oh and SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE)

Dropbear said:

Most of us have heard of Project Orion (nuclear pulse rockets) but I had not heard of Project Nerva before.

According to Wiki, this is was in fairly late stage development before being cancelled by NASA in the 70s because of massive budget cuts. This technology was seriously looked at, for powering manned missions to Mars.

The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) was a U.S. nuclear thermal rocket engine development program that ran for roughly two decades. NERVA was a joint effort of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and NASA, managed by the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) until both the program and the office ended at the end of 1972.

NERVA demonstrated that nuclear thermal rocket engines were a feasible and reliable tool for space exploration, and at the end of 1968 SNPO certified that the latest NERVA engine, the NRX/XE, met the requirements for a manned Mars mission. Although NERVA engines were built and tested as much as possible with flight-certified components and the engine was deemed ready for integration into a spacecraft, much of the U.S. space program was cancelled by Congress before a manned visit to Mars could take place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA

looks very cool

(oh and SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE)

Going out into space is our density destiny

I wonder if the USA would massively fund a manned Mars mission if it looked like China would bet them to it. It would probably make the associated costs of the race to the moon look like chicken feed though and a lot more technological challenging even with modern technology.

Cymek said:

I wonder if the USA would massively fund a manned Mars mission if it looked like China would bet them to it. It would probably make the associated costs of the race to the moon look like chicken feed though and a lot more technological challenging even with modern technology.

Just send the ISS with a few little tweaks…

The U.S. Would find it hard to fund a cock waving contest with China

Dropbear said:

The U.S. Would find it hard to fund a cock waving contest with China

Yes China has lots of flash money at the moment for big projects

> The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) was a U.S. nuclear thermal rocket engine

Ah good, so NASA beat mollwollfumble to the idea. My Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application was also a thermal rocket engine, using the heat energy from a high-temperature reactor for thrust.

Dropbear said:

The U.S. Would find it hard to fund a cock waving contest with China

So would China…

poikilotherm said:

Dropbear said:

The U.S. Would find it hard to fund a cock waving contest with China

So would China…

UWOTM8?

The 1975 Dr Who story “The Ark in Space” was set on Space Station Nerva.

Bubblecar said:

The 1975 Dr Who story “The Ark in Space” was set on Space Station Nerva.

In the novelization, is this the particular human-far-future episode in which humans had developed two hearts, like time lords? This particular detail seems to be missing from more recent far-human-future episodes.