Nasa is to consider deploying nuclear-powered electric propulsion as a way to speed up a future voyage to Mars.

A round trip to the Red Planet is expected to take up to two years to complete, a long time for any astronaut even aside from concerns that exposure to chronic, low-dose radiation in space could cause neural and behavioural impairments over time.

But Nasa is hoping to shorten this timeframe by exploring the potential of nuclear electric propulsion, which employs a nuclear reactor to generate electricity that ionises, or positively charges, and electrically accelerates gaseous propellants to provide thrust to a spacecraft.

Researchers at Nasa’s Langley Research Center are working on a project dubbed Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL. The project aims to take a critical element of nuclear electric propulsion, its heat dissipation system, and divide it into smaller components that can be assembled robotically and autonomously in space...