'“Until we commit to going back to Mars, we’re not going to have a nuclear rocket,� McDaniel said."In the meantime, does anyone know what measures NASA has taken to meet with both the Obama adminstrations take on "Going Green" and the depleting fossil fuels?I don't. Which is why I'm confused why they've rejected nuclear technology. Especially when quoting the article:"It’s not hard to see why engineers would want to use nuclear power. Fission reactors provide a lot of power for their size, which is a key attribute in designing space systems. One engineer claims nuclear rockets are inherently twice as efficient as their chemical brethren. Their attributes could have increased the exploration range of the space program, nuclear propulsion advocates argue, allowing us to get to more interesting places.'We could have done a lot more things in space. We could have gone more places,� McDaniel said of nuclear rocket research. “It’s highly likely we would have gone to Mars.'"