Such a development, if flown, could usher in a new era of spaceflight.
That said, it is only one of several exciting avenues in rocket propulsion.
Here are some others.
Chemical rockets
The standard means of propulsion for spacecraft uses chemical rockets.
The engine nozzle provides the only outlet for this gas which consequently expands out of it, providing thrust.
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Recently, private company SpaceX has been conductingtest flightsof their Starship launcher prototype.
The engines are much more fuel efficient and can generate a much higher thrust-to-weight ratio than traditional designs.
Fission thermal rockets
The nucleus of an atom consists of sub-atomic particles called protons and neutrons.
These determine the mass of an element the more protons and neutrons, the heavier it is.
Some atomic nuclei are unstable and can be split into several smaller nuclei when bombarded with neutrons.
This is the process ofnuclear fission, and it can release an enormous amount of energy.
Like with chemical rockets, this can only escape via the rocket nozzle, again producing thrust.
Nuclear rocket engine being transported to test stand in Jackass Flats, Nevada, in 1967.
A major engineering challenge is to sufficiently miniaturize a reactor so that it will fit on a spacecraft.
The propellant is a gas such as xenon, a fairly heavy element that can be easily electrically charged.
Ion thruster of NASAs Deep Space 1.
Current ion enginesare powered by solar cells, effectively making them solar powered, and requiring very little propellant.
They have been used on EsasSMART-1 missionto the Moon andBepi-Colombo missionen-route to Mercury.
Image via Pavel Hrdlicka, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
Sails rely on the physical property of conservation of momentum.
The speed gain will also depend on how far from the Sun you are.
At Earth, the power received from sunlight is about 1.3 kW per square metre.
A way of improving efficiency and reducing sail size is to use alaser to propel the spacecraft forward.
The development of nuclear fission rockets may excite some and concern others.
