First mission to bring back samples from the moon since 1976 started successfully

[SvennoJ]

Mnementh said:

Nighthawk117 said:

Yes, the NERVA program ended around 1970.  They had the Prometheus program in the 80s or 90s.  Not sure what the new name is now.

You don't want a nuclear powered rocket to get you off the Earth - hell people are scared enough of RTGs.  You want chemical rocket engines to get you off the Earth, but to go from Earth orbit to deep space, a nuclear powered engine is far away, the most efficient way to travel.

Are you sure? The main reason it takes so long to get to Mars is, that the probes aren't under full thrust the whole time. Because fuel would be needed, which in turn would need to be accelerated at first which needs more fuel to accelerate all the fuel. I don't see how nuclear propellants solve that problem.

If I look here, I see the proposed nuclear rocket engines, they are hypothetical: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_engine#Nuclear

You need a lot less nuclear fuel to go the distance, thus you take a lot less weight.

From google:
One uranium fuel pellet (about 10 grams) creates as much energy as one ton of coal, 149 gallons of oil or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

You can be under full thrust until the halfway point and reverse