People have come up with a lot of ways to use nuclear energy to power rockets. Most are less crazy than Orion but one, the nuclear saltwater engine, even more so. Here's a good source of info.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php
The thing that surprised me when reading about NERVA is that - according to Wiki article - space race partially died out because the US Government explicitly decided they're tired with it and there are better ways of spending money than going to Mars.
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See also Tintin's moon rocket's propulsion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorers_on_the_Moon#Rocket_e... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA
People have come up with a lot of ways to use nuclear energy to power rockets. Most are less crazy than Orion but one, the nuclear saltwater engine, even more so. Here's a good source of info. http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php
The thing that surprised me when reading about NERVA is that - according to Wiki article - space race partially died out because the US Government explicitly decided they're tired with it and there are better ways of spending money than going to Mars.