The space agency found the concept of the nuclear-powered vehicle quite sensible, but expressed skepticism about achieving a power output of 38KW with only 3.4 tons.
The greater the power, the greater the thermal pressure, and making it mobile as well—could Xinyuan really pull it off next year?
It's true that Xinyuan Company is wealthy, but we're talking about nuclear technology here. Even the space agency's nuclear batteries are bought from Russia.
They also knew that Cheng Nankai was now in charge of Xinyuan's nuclear department. His resume just barely qualified him as a novice nuclear physicist, which probably made him ill-suited for such an important role.
So even when Xinyuan recruited some not-so-critical nuclear experts from several universities, it wasn't obstructed—because in their eyes, this team was unlikely to pull off such an advanced nuclear propulsion plan; whether the powerful nuclear-powered vehicle could become a reality was uncertain.
