Weird nuclear propulsion concept

[hagopbul]

TL;DR Summary

A question about nuclear propulsion and it's choices

Hello all:

I have a small question about nuclear propulsion , why everyone are trying to use it ,and why this wired choice of nuclear option , retrofitting a nuclear reactor to mount it on the rocket , isn't that a little dangerous , why they don't use other option or research it , there is few obvious ones

 

[jackwhirl]

I presume you're talking about concepts for a Nuclear Thermal Rocket, because I've seen a few articles on them recently.

Why nuclear? It's a question of efficiency, really. NRTs can generally get more thrust out of a given mass of propellant. This is measured as Specific Impulse, per the NRT article they expect 850-1000 Isp for an NRT. For comparison, the Merlin rocket engines SpaceX uses on the Falcon 9 get about 348 Isp (Merlin 1D Vacuum). This let's you go places (like Mars) faster. [Further, NRTs get this Isp and have high thrust, unlike Ion Thrusters which have Isp values in the thousands, but produce very little thrust.]

As far as dangers go, I think the one that gets the most attention is the danger that the nuclear fuel doesn't make it to orbit due to one disaster or another and radioisotopes are distributed over a large swath of the planet.

Why not use another option? Those result in longer missions to deep space, and the less time spent exposing your astronauts to cosmic radiation the better.

 

[hagopbul]

I was talking about other options for nuclear propulsion ,there is other ways for using nuclear energy in propulsion

 

[anorlunda]

I was talking about other options for nuclear propulsion ,there is other ways for using nuclear energy in propulsion

What research have you done so far? This article mentions several ways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_propulsion

Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that fulfill the promise of the Atomic Age by using some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. The idea of using nuclear material for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. I