China aims for Mars and will use a nuclear engine to overtake NASA

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China has just announced the design of a nuclear reactor capable of stretching, a real feat of engineering which could be very useful in the perspective of joining Mars in a rocket. In any case, this is what the CNSA, the Chinese space agency, announces. The latter assures that it wants to go to Mars within 10 to 15 years, within an ambitious timetable, it could therefore overtake NASA on the line.

The nuclear fission to go to Mars ?

In a joint press release, around ten Chinese research institutes announced the creation of&#8217 ;a nuclear fission reactor. Thanks to this technology, China could propel a ship into space with a power never before achieved.

As scientists explain in their article, republished by the South China Morning Post, this reactor would have the strange ability to “s’stretch”once in the vacuum of space. On Earth, the device would have been small enough to be as large as a container. But once in space it could expand and reach the size of a 20-story building.

Chinese researchers assure that the ;#8217;use of a nuclear fission reactor could make it possible to divide the duration of the trip by two. It would thus make it possible to reach our red neighbor in three months instead of seven according to estimates from SpaceX and NASA, which use more traditional fossil engines.

A technology still under development

If the Chinese publication catches the eye of scientists around the world, it is not an end point for research in this area. The design of a nuclear rocket reactor has been a topic for years and NASA is also working on its prototypes.

The US space agency has, however, been held back for years by the legitimate fears of the civilian population and those in power regarding nuclear tests on rockets. If many precautions are taken in the design of these new type of rockets, an incident is always possible, and the consequences of the explosion of a nuclear reactor would be terrible miles away around.

In order to prevent potential risks, Chinese scientists have built artificial intelligence to study this reactor. She must analyze and imagine all the scenarios to discover problems before they are triggered in real life and do damage.

According to scientists, these computer simulations should help accelerate the development of nuclear reactors in the country. China hopes to use these rockets to make humanity's first round trip to Mars. The objective set by the government would be to achieve this before 2049, the centenary year of the end of the civil war in the Middle Kingdom.

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