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You can carve it however you want - it can be purely extra-orbital, it can be NERVA, it can be Orion. What are the specific legal and political barriers that prevent it from being implemented?

Chris B. Behrens
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    Don't forget public opinion –  May 06 '17 at 17:02
  • Yeah, I would file that under "political". I mean, is it as simple as "transporting nuclear materials to space isn't safe", or is it more complicated than that? Because that's a solvable problem. You can absolutely construct a launch vessel that can survive a catastrophic failure X2. So, I think it must be more complicated than that. – Chris B. Behrens May 06 '17 at 17:04
  • Someone flagged this as 'opinion-based', but I can imagine there are legal barriers to (or requirements for) using/launching thermonuclear reactors... Political is different, but even for that there may have been historical facts or precedents. –  May 06 '17 at 18:49
  • "You can absolutely construct a launch vessel that can survive a catastrophic failure X2. " Really? What do you mean by vessel? And catastrophic? – Organic Marble May 08 '17 at 15:49
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    Well, specifically, I'm referring to a vessel that would protect nuclear materials (and probably just the nuclear materials) from a catastrophic failure such that rather than failing, the vessel would fall to Earth intact. It would be very heavy and expensive. – Chris B. Behrens May 08 '17 at 15:51
  • But catastrophic, I mean a worst case scenario whereby the airframe fails at the worst possible velocity and vector, along with whatever ballistic effects of the failure of the propulsion system. – Chris B. Behrens May 08 '17 at 15:53
  • Well, I would say that the primary obstruction is a lack of mission. Nuclear propulsion becomes useful when we talk about delivering superheavy loads or heavy interplanetary missions. Right now the only justification for those are research and prestige. Right now there's no real space race and scientists appetites will always be unsatisfied. – OON Feb 13 '19 at 23:53
  • @OON - it's also useful for a much faster transit. I think what might finally bring it into play would be a Moore's Law for specific impulse brought about by large scale mining operations...a lot of things have to happen before that, though. – Chris B. Behrens Feb 14 '19 at 16:13

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