Man I really wish we would get nuclear propulsion going again one of these days. Fine, fine, not as a launch system, just orbit to orbit... but we could move much larger, more dependable payloads so much further and not have to fiddle with little tweaks like these to surf the tiny margins of chemical propulsion.
It could have been a very mature technology by now. I feel like we created all the nightmares and quit the technology before we got to the actually good uses.
Nuclear propulsion is more efficient but doesn’t produce enough thrust for surface launch(\)
We are stuck with chemical rockets for that. Nuclear could help us get to Mars faster or launch less mass from the surface. It may even be relevant for the upper stage of a launcher. But not for getting off the ground.
It could have been a very mature technology by now. I feel like we created all the nightmares and quit the technology before we got to the actually good uses.