lemonade

The crash of Columbia may help some things. I think we are all
willing to admit that manned flight hasn't been going anywhere,
figuratively or actually, for a very long time. Something needs to be
done.

The nuclear spacecraft idea, I assume some evolution of the ORION
design, would make the entire solar system reachable. The issue
remains about launching fissionable material. Here is the lemonade.

Uranium is available in asteroids. This would create a justifiable
need for a manned program if we want to mine and process the stuff in
deep space. What could be more secure? Even if there was a mishap it
would be years, if ever, that any radioactive material would be near
Earth.

Perhaps the solution is finding cheaper ways to build Saturn 5's.