Race to Titan: Nuclear-Heat Propulsion Could Reach Saturn’s Moon in 220 Days

Engineers compared nuclear propulsion options for a crewed Titan mission; a uranium-fueled nuclear-thermal design called Copernicus could reach Titan in about 220 days, with additional propellant tanks shrinking transit to 90 days but adding mass and cost. The full mission could last ~1,000 days, far exceeding any human in deep space so far, with exposure to galactic cosmic rays and bone/muscle deterioration that current shielding cannot fully mitigate. NASA’s Dragonfly robotic mission, launching in 2034, will gather data to test assumptions before any crewed mission.