"NASA's New Nuclear Rocket: Revolutionizing Space Exploration"
NASA is investing in new technologies for future space exploration, including a concept for a Thin Film Isotope Nuclear Engine Rocket (TFINER) proposed by James Bickford and his colleagues. This nuclear propulsion technology relies on the decay of radioactive isotopes to generate propulsion and has been selected for Phase I development by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. The TFINER concept aims to enable rapid velocities for next-generation mission concepts, such as sending a telescope to the sun's gravitational lens and rendezvousing with interstellar objects, using thin sheets of a radioactive isotope to generate thrust.