NASA Going Nuclear With Project Prometheus

NASA’s famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Northrop Grumman to jointly develop a design for the Prometheus spacecraft.

The new spacecraft, its first mission proposed for the moons of Jupiter, will be powered by a nuclear fission reactor and driven by electric ion propulsion, an example of nuclear electric propulsion.

Reactor designs will come from the Department of Energy’s Office of Naval Reactors

The project begins a preliminary phase, as Northrop Grumman’s team develops system requirements for the project, as well as an initial spacecraft design.

Currently, a launch date of 2015 has been projected for Prometheus to Jupiter. Prometheus may be the first significant step toward human deep-space exploration.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.