Space travel has always been a long haul since chemical rockets, the space age’s workhorses, guzzle fuel and plod through the universe, making a trip to Mars a year long slog. But a team at Ohio State University is breaking the rules with a new concept: a nuclear powered rocket that could cut the travel time in half. Their Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket, or CNTR, replaces solid fuel rods with liquid uranium, and that’s a big increase in efficiency that makes Mars feel like a weekend getaway.