/sci/ - Science & Math

I think SpaceX is probably going to branch out into developing nuclear rockets following Starship and the 18m Starship variant since 9 month long mars rides aren't nice. Probably around the mid 2030s. Wonder if they're gonna go for simple solid core NTRs or something more exotic. Or maybe something more novel like laser thermal or beamed power electric drives. They do seem to be within the philosophy of putting the max amount of hardware into stage 0 (the laser platform). Hope they get clearance for it, don't want lockheed to waste years and suck billions on cost-plus money to do it.