nuclear thermal rocket and Mitee
In a nuclear thermal rocket a working fluid, usually hydrogen, is heated in a high temperature nuclear reactor, and then expands through a nozzle to create thrust. The nuclear reactor's energy replaces the chemical energy of the reactive chemicals in a traditional rocket engine. Due to the high energy of the nuclear reactions compared to chemical ones, the resulting effeciency of the engine is at least twice as good, and even higher for advanced designs. For more information, check out the websites at http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket, http://www.fas.org/nuke/space/links.htm, http://www.marsacademy.com/propul.htm, and http://www.vectorsite.net/tarokt2.html.
