NUCLEAR PROPULSION FOR SPACE EXPLORATION

Nuclear propulsion has been identified as a key technology by several groups that have studied how to implement the Space Exploration Initia tive to go back to the Moon, establish human presences on Mars and exp lore space beyond Mars. This paper will describe the results of some o f the recent studies of the application of both nuclear electric and n uclear thermal propulsion systems in space exploration. This paper wil l also identify some of the issues that require further study and that have a significant effect on the propulsion system design and selecti on.