While NASA is focused on nuclear power to solve its near-term need for better spacecraft power and propulsion systems, for the long-term the agency is exploring a wide range of promising and in some cases exotic technologies to reduce the time it takes to travel to other planets.
The agency’s goal is to find the technologies that will make it possible to open up the solar system to vigorous exploration of planets, moons, comets and asteroids by humans and robotic spacecraft. The technologies already under consideration include thermal, magnetic and chemical propulsion systems, anti-matter technology and propulsion concepts such as solar sails or laser-assisted techniques that do not require the use of propellants.
Some of that work is being funded under a new program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., called the In-Space Propulsion Investment Area.
The program’s mandate is to explore the high-, medium-, and low-priority technologies that would be needed for the advanced missions NASA would like to conduct over the next 10 to 15 years.
Members of Congress Lash Out at NASA Budget Decisions
WASHINGTON — Emotions continued to run high Thursday as the reality of NASA’s space station restructuring plans begin to hit home with members of Congress.
NASA Plans Smarter, Less Costly Vehicle The space shuttle has served NASA well for two decades, but the fleet is expensive to operate and a beast to maintain, U.S. space agency officials are quick to point out. NASA therefore needs a new reusable launcher, one that is capable of carrying people and payloads to orbit for a fraction of the cost of the shuttle. And while NASA expects it will have to pay handsomely to build
the new system, the agency would prefer that the system be privately owned and operated --Brian Berger, Washington
Advances in Space Nuclear Power Unlikely Before 2010 Nuclear propulsion has the potential to bridge the distance between Earth and the outer planets, but NASA officials caution that a new program to develop better space nuclear technology is unlikely to produce big breakthroughs before 2010. --Brian Berger, Washington
