space fission

A rocket powered by thin films of nuclear material could get to Mars in two weeks, say scientists 

A rocket powered by thin films of nuclear material could get to Mars in as little as two weeks, according to scientists in Israel. With conventional engines, the journey would last almost a year, they say.

Standard rockets work by giving a spacecraft a big kick, says Chris Welch, at Kingston University in London: "You essentially give it a big kick to get it going and then let it coast, until giving it another kick to send it onto orbit." 

Welch says nuclear thrusters are less powerful, but can be used for longer periods. This makes the spacecraft build up speed and ultimately travel far more quickly. Ion thrusters are currently in use but are less powerful than the proposed nuclear thrusters. 

The new engine, proposed by Yigal Ronen and Eugene Shwageraus at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, uses films of a radioactive material called americium which are less than a micron thick. 

Critical mass 

Unlike other radioactive materials, such as plutonium and uranium, very small amounts of americium produce chain reactions. These reactions pump out large amounts of energetic ions or fission products. 

Ronen calculates that if the americium is shaped into a thin film, the energetic ions produced by the nuclear chain reactions will be ejected out of the film. 

If these high-energy particles were channeled with a magnetic field, they could be used to power a spacecraft, he says. "We are now far enough advanced to interest international space programmes in taking a closer look at americium-based space vehicles." 

Welch says: "You'd have to take this a long way before you could use it for something practical. But it's worthy of further investigation and if it turned out to work, that would be wonderful." - New scientist

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