Nuclear Rocket Using Indigenous Martian Fuels 3D model

NIMF (Nuclear rocket using Indigenous Martian Fuels) was a monolithic, reusable, crewed Mars Transfer Vehicle, lander, and Earth return vehicle proposed in the 1990s as a follow-on to the Mars Direct architecture. Its principle design feature was the use of a nuclear-thermal rocket engine consuming liquid carbon dioxide as reaction mass, which could be extracted directly from the Martian atmosphere with minimal equipment or electrical power needed. Compared to chemical-propulsion Earth return vehicles using hydrogen or methane, NIMF could refuel up to 100 times faster on the surface due to this lower power requirement, allowing a launch back to orbit in just hours instead of months, and with no pre-placed equipment needed. At the end of its mission, it would aerocapture back into Earth orbit and be refueled for another Mars mission

All materials and textures are packed into the .blend file. Instancing and modifiers have been used to reduce file size and allow easy editing. Landing leg deployment is rigged.