NASA - propel spacecraft by producing a "pellet-beam" of microscopic particles travelling at very high speed (over 74 miles per second) using laser blasts. The concept could dramatically shorten the time it takes to explore deep space. Where Voyager 1 took 35 years to reach interstellar space (the heliopause, roughly 123AU from the Sun), a one-ton spacecraft could reach 100AU in just three years. It could travel 500AU in 15 years. See https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/nasa-titan-seaplane-pellet-beam-propulsion-163726530.html?
We still rely on old, inefficient, and slow chemical rockets to travel from planet to planet, severely hampering our ability to explore outer space. Nuclear propulsion can help. But the Outer Space Treaty banned the use of high-power nuclear devices in space. This could be about to change. See https://wlockett.medium.com/nuclear-space-propulsion-is-about-to-be-unlocked-bc5f8c2cc56e
