On February 18, 2021, NASA’s advanced Perseverance rover touched down on Mars and is now seeking evidence of native life on the red planet.  Sooner than you think, human engineers and adventurers may be building the first town on Mars.  While we have made great strides in robotics technology, the next step in the journey is sending humans to Mars.  In order to send a crewed mission to Mars, NASA is focusing on nuclear electric or nuclear thermal propulsion systems for minimizing the time and fuel it takes to travel to Mars and back.

Jim Reuter, the associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said NASA is “investing in technologies that could enable crewed missions to Mars, and looks forward to seeing what innovations industry offer in nuclear propulsion.”  NASA released a solicitation on February 12, 2021 asking the industry for preliminary reactor design concepts for a nuclear thermal propulsion system.  Technology development has already begun for sending a crewed mission to Mars as early as the 2030s.  US Nuclear (OTCQB: UCLE) and MIFTI’s fusion power generator would be ideal for this application, as its nuclear fusion power uses a lightweight, safe, and low-cost fuel.  It generates four times as much energy as nuclear fission, and 10,000,000 times as much as chemical rocket fuels.

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Bob Goldstein, CEO of US Nuclear Corp (OTC: UCLE) weighs in on asteroid mining, “Mining of rare and valuable metals from the asteroids has long been fantasized, but then disregarded as something that is in the distant future. However, recent breakthroughs in fusion energy could lead to a new generation of faster, more powerful spacecraft propulsion systems, precisely for the purpose of asteroid mining expeditions.”

The mining of asteroids has long been viewed as a vast source of wealth consisting of rare earth elements and precious metals.  The short supply and high prices for these minerals have put us at odds with other countries, disrupting the supply chain of phones, computers, electric cars, and slowing our economic growth.  In fact, terrestrial reserves on Earth could be exhausted within the next few decades.

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 11, 2021 / On December 16, 2020, the White House issued Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6), which outlines a national strategy for using space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems in a safe and effective manner. The new policy directive confirms the United States’ commitment to using SNPP systems and establishing nuclear power stations on the moon and beyond, which is good news for US Nuclear (OTCQB: UCLE) and partner MIFTI, who have designed and are testing thermonuclear fusion power generators.

Scott Pace of the National Space Council, commented “Space nuclear power and propulsion is a fundamental enabling technology for American deep-space missions to Mars and beyond.  The United States intends to remain the leader among spacefaring nations, applying nuclear power technology safely, securely, and sustainably in space.” The key factor for enabling space travel is the new nuclear-powered propulsion systems, as traditional chemical-powered rocket fuels are hopelessly weak. DARPA, NASA, and the US Space Force have recently gotten serious and deployed the nuclear option. Why? Nuclear fuels and nuclear power systems, such as the highly-regarded MIFTI Z-pinch fusion reactor, can deliver 10,000,000 times the work (or energy) per payload pound than the chemical rocket fuels now used by Musk’s Space-X, Bezos’s Blue Origin, Branson’s Virgin Atlantic, as do Lockheed and Boeing.

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