ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor

A trip from here to the distant sky takes power of some kind. More and longer-lasting power requires ever more efficient fuel, an equation that has reopened the door for nuclear power and propulsion for a variety of future space activities.

Steven D. Howe, a Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear engineer, started his new job Monday as the founding director of the Center for Space Nuclear Research at Idaho National Laboratory, where he will have an influence over the next phase of nuclear power and propulsion in space.

Howe said Wednesday that CSNR would run a small grant program to stimulate research in nuclear-related power and propulsion for future space missions, along with an educational program to develop scientific and technical talent for space missions that are 10 years down the road.

"We have to have nuclear for a Mars mission," he said. "If we get serious and really want to go to Mars, we need more people in the farm club."

For much of his career at Los Alamos, Howe said he has been involved in aspects of a future manned mission to the Red Planet, as an advocate or working on small projects.

"Very few of them were funded," he said, "but the lab and its history in propulsion for the last couple of decades were instrumental in my getting involved in nuclear propulsion and being able to pursue it at almost a hobby level."

Howe left the laboratory in 2000 to found a private company, Hbar Technologies, L.L.C. One of Hbar's most intriguing projects was work on a spacecraft capable of reaching Alpha Centauri.

The study sponsored by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts developed a plan that included an analysis of a mission to the next star, propelled by a stream of antimatter particles pushing against a large sail.

The design proposed a power pack of 17 grams of antihydrogen, a kind of mirror image of ordinary matter, which has been produced at Fermilab in Illinois and at other high-energy accelerators.

Howe has published more than 50 unclassified and nine classified reports in his field.

He was a member of a National Research Council committee that recently published a study identifying likely scientific tasks for nuclear powered space systems with recommendations on how best to advance the technology.

Among the study's recommendations was that NASA recognize the public's concerns about nuclear projects in space, in order to communicate clearly and openly regarding the potential benefits and challenges of the technology.

Howe is also the author of a short story published in Analog and a novel, "Honor Bound Honor Born," about the development of a commercial base on the moon.

The new director has taken a leave of absence from his position as a technical staff member in the Thermonuclear Applications group of the Applied Physics Division at Los Alamos.

The Center for Space Nuclear Research, to be located in Idaho Falls, was part of a proposal by a consortium led by Battelle that won a 10-year contract to manage INL.

The center's grants will coordinate university-led collaborations with NASA and other federal laboratories.

"We can see what's attractive now and make a lot of ground before putting the big money in," Howe said.