NASA said this week that it would team up with DARPA, the Pentagon’s R&D arm, to build, launch, and demonstrate a nuclear thermal engine. This early work is intended to pave the way for a crewed mission to Mars in the late 2030s. The joint project has a $110M budget this year and will likely cost hundreds of millions more through deployment, planned for 2027.
NASA and DARPA are focused on speeding up the voyage to Mars and other deep space destinations. “If we have swifter trips for humans, they are safer trips," NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said Tuesday.
DARPA in 2021 awarded funds to General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin to study designs of nuclear reactors and spacecraft.