Russia plans nuclear rocket for manned Mars mission

Nuclear electric, low efficiency

Russian space agency plan to build NUCLEAR space rocket

ship would use a nuclear reactor to run an electric rocket engine.

reader comment:

The only planetary mission currently considered by Russia is a plan to send a probe to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos. It was set to launch this year, but was delayed. I just hope that it is more succesful than their nuke submarines or Chernobyl. Russians don't seem to do Nuclear very well.

Risk

Nuclear waste in space, no !

Nuclear accidents during start !

Ethical non-acceptable for other possible space civilizations

source: www.tgdaily.com | www.universetoday.com | Nuclear Propulsion

Russia will spend $600 million on a nuclear-powered spacecraft

to take men to Mars, and beyond. Is it safe?

Environmentalists point to a long list of accidents with Soviet nuclear-powered satellites, including tthe crash over northern Canada, which spread radioactive debris over a wide area. Earlier this year, a US Iridium communications satellite collided in space with another Russian atomic-powered military satellite, Kosmos 2251, creating what scientists described as a huge potentially hazardous cloud of debris in near-Earth orbit.

“The main danger with any nuclear activity in space comes with the transporting of these materials into orbit, and the sometimes unscripted return of them into the atmosphere,” says Vladimir Chuprov, an energy expert with Greenpeace-Russia. source: csmonitor.com

Update Jan-12-2010 source: businessinsider.com

IT'S BACK: Russia Revives Plans For A Nuclear Rocket $1bn