American Space Nuclear Electric Systems

ABSTRACT: Since the 1960's the United States of America has launched several space missions using nuclear technology as a mean for propulsion and power supply. The majority of the American nuclear powered spacecrafts were based in radioisotope generators, with the exception of the SNAP-10A (1965), which was the only American reactor ever launched. However, some of the most notorious nuclear reactor based projects developed in the USA in the last four decades were the SPAR/SP-100 (an evolution of the Space Power Advanced Reactor program), the Space Prototype (SP-100), the Prometheus, and the Fi...