Here is a uranium fission engine, heir to NERVA. We're promised that this fuel can operate at high temperatures [2430 °C] and take us to Mars in "three months" so 90ish days. "Us" as in: a crew. This is a "high mass" solution, in the tonnes. Also I think we have to be in orbit first; this is not an Orion to blast directly from Florida, or, as the case may be, Baffin Island.
Hohmann to Venus, as I keep saying, takes 146 days and our synodic period suuucks. Given that heat becomes a problem along the way, this fuel looks awesome for cutting that trip down and/or for extraHohmann journeys.
Hat-tips to various press releases. As of [11/10] I cannot find any actual reportage so for my main link, I just relayed USNC.
ULTRASAFE 12/23: Forgot to mention, this is a Low Enrichment powersource. The only kind we're allowed as of today.
DEMO 12/28: Here's our reportage - with a target date for the prototype: 2027. They'd send actual cargo after that maybe 2035. Fusion is conceded as (theoretically) superior: four times the energy, less fuel (since the fused fuel here becomes the propellant), allowing for a higher mass of actual cargo (ten tonnes?). But the Ultra Safe crew point out its production is lagging fission's; fusion has no date for demo, just stages in production; they're in #2 where #4 is demo time. The fusion link I found was spitballing 2047, for Titan. In the meantime the engineering lore learned for fission (like chamber temperature) can be reused for fusion, if/when they ever get there.
NEXT GENERATION 12/30: I had some silly questions.
DETAILS 2/4/21: CNN. I see they're hoping to sell to NASA. SpaceX looks like it's set to be sidelined and looted.
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