It doesn't take an NTR to land on Mars. If you're going to pin all your hopes on NTRs I think it's still going to take decades. No one is even seriously working on them.
I'd much rather pin my hopes on chemical rockets in the form of SpaceX's Starship.
I didn't say it did. But it's one of the two most feasible options, the second involving lunar ISRU and orbital propellant depots. NASA's Mars Design Reference Mission has consistently included NTR studies.
Going past Mars and into the Belt, an NTR is practically essential.
> If you're going to pin all your hopes on NTRs I think it's still going to take decades.
Anything we try is going to take decades if you're talking about real time and not Elon time. But that's beside the point.
The point I was trying to make is that there has been approximately zero serious investment in human spaceflight beyond LEO once Apollo wrapped up. The Soviets decided they didn't want to land on the Moon after all, the US decided they would rather build a flying space truck that goes to LEO than build on Apollo, and everyone else spent decades just catching up. Since an NTR is only useful for interplanetary flight, no interplanetary flight means no need to develop NTR.
I'd much rather pin my hopes on chemical rockets in the form of SpaceX's Starship.