https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCqg3NIwbHE Hosted by Ralph Wilkins. From Feb 3, 2023. Nuclear powered rockets are about to become a reality opening up space travel for humanity. Ever since the dawn of nuclear weapons and reactors, advanced militaries and space agencies have dreamt of powering rockets with long lasting energy efficient nuclear fuel. The Soviet Union and United States ran a number of programs to develop nuclear propulsive power for human spaceflight. Deep space robotic spacecraft, lunar and Mars rovers have all been powered by 'nuclear batteries' in the past - as have experiments that the Apollo astronauts took to the moon - but no nuclear rocket engines have been tested, let alone flown, in space. That is about to change with a NASA/DARPA collaboration to do just that in the hope of cutting the time to travel to Mars by more than half. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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