Free Republic

Need to cross the ocean of space with enough oomph and energy to get to Jupiter? Bring in the Navy. That’s what NASA and its Project Prometheus has done by partnering with the Department of Energy’s Naval Reactors (NR) Program. The joint effort, reported last month by SPACE.com, was formally announced March 17. An early target for the collaboration is a space-rated nuclear reactor for the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission. JIMO will visit Jupiter's three icy moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. NR brings 50-plus years of practical experience in compact, long-lived reactor systems carried on submarines and aircraft...

Project Prometheus, NASA’s multibillion-dollar nuclear power and propulsion initiative, has a new home inside the U.S. space agency. Begun as the Nuclear Systems Initiative in 2002, the program was given a new name in 2003, a bigger budget and its first mission: the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO). Now, with an ambitious new space exploration agenda handed down by the White House, NASA is making more changes to Project Prometheus. JIMO’s launch date is slipping and responsibility for developing the nuclear systems NASA says it needs to kick solar system exploration into high gear is being given to the newly...

WASHINGTON -- NASA will fund 10 research proposals in the first series of contracts awarded under Project Prometheus, the agency’s effort to develop nuclear power and propulsion systems for spacecraft. The 10 proposals are intended to develop new methods and technologies for converting heat from radioisotope fuel into electrical power, NASA announced. Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically reduce interplanetary travel time while boosting the amount of power available for science instruments. "NASA is laying the foundation for several technology paths that could enable entirely new classes of missions, from networked science stations on Mars to small spacecraft capable...