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Why NASA wants to test a nuclear rocket engine for a Mars mission | Mashable
It'll be safe, engineers say.
NASA and defense leaders say the rocket will be safe for people on the ground, as well as eventually make space travel safer for astronauts: Faster trips mean they'll have less exposure to harmful cosmic rays. The program ended in 1972 when President Richard Nixon made the political decision to cut funding for human missions to Mars and instead focus spending on the Space Shuttle and research in low-Earth orbit. Safe testing facilities are a consideration that didn't happen decades ago when engineers were working on earlier versions of these systems, said Roger Myers, an aerospace consultant who co-chaired the National Academies' study.
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