Video: https://youtu.be/uAvuKV0Uo18

I ended up browsing the NASA press release section of their website, and found an interesting report that asked NASA’s Space Nuclear Systems division to present a report on the feasibility and future of nuclear power in future space missions. The future of nuclear power in space. In short, NASA will be relying on nuclear power technologies as they venture further and further from the Earth, on longer and longer missions.
A first crewed human mission to Mars is expected to take about 700 to 900 days. What viable options do we have to power the ship, when increasing distance from the sun reduced the efficiency of solar panels? On Mars, the solar flux density is 1/3 that of Earth.

The answer is modular nuclear power. We can expect that the first permanent moon base, the first expedition to Mars and the first Mars base to all use nuclear power, due to the it’s energy density and much smaller mass requirements when compared to fossil fuels and solar energy.

Check out my new video where we go over the pros, cons and risk of using nuclear technologies in space exploration!
Source document from NASA website:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/50777_nasa_eo_13972_report_rev_11b_final1_tagged.pdf