Why a Nuclear Powered Rocket is a Bad Idea

Taking a critical look at the enthusiasm for nuclear rocket engines in the media. Looking at the pros and cons of nuclear rocket engines.

There is newfound enthusiasm for nuclear powered space rockets. Wired magazine is reporting on BWX Technologies and NASA working together to develop a nuclear rocket engine.

“You can do chemical propulsion to Mars, but it’s really hard,” says Emrich. “Going further than the moon is much better with nuclear propulsion.”

Further the article says:

“Many space exploration problems require that high-density power be available at all times, and there is a class of such problems for which nuclear power is the preferred — if not the only — option,” Rex Geveden, a former NASA associate administrator and CEO of the power generation company BWX Technologies, told the National Space Council in August.

I see several problems with these claims. There are no mentions of either Blue Origin or SpaceX which specifically has plans to go to Mars using chemical propulsion, something the interviewed people in this article go rather far in dismissing as a viable option. Somebody better head over to Elon Musk and tell him, he is wasting billions on something that will not work.

My issue with these guys is that we are seeing a repeat of the same bullshit that has kept space exploration stuck for decades. It is the same kind of thinking that brought us the exorbitantly expensive Space Shuttle. It is NASA and space geeks pursing sexy high tech hardware without any regard to practicality, simplicity or cost.

The Space shuttle was such a complicated solution that it ended up costing significantly more than a rocket with zero reuse.

One of the problems with the people working at NASA and its subcontractors is that they are primarily trained to think in terms of technology and not cost. E.g. it has been remarked that engineers at SpaceX actually have intimate knowledge of the cost of the parts they put together, which is unusual in the old space industry accustomed to cost plus subcontracting.