I was also wondering about this. How exactly are they powering it with a nuclear source? Nuclear power comes in two forms, (as far as I know). A) Steam B) Peltier Seebeck effect (often used in space probes). Neither of which is useful here. Though I did hear of theoretical spacecraft that used timed mini nuclear explosions behind the ship to propel it forward, but by mini, it was still on a much larger scale than an average missile.
cohensh writes "A Purdue engineering student was arrested for terroristic mischief. After receiving a parking ticket and having a boot put on his car he put the ticket, boot and payment in a box and left it at parking services. Someone thought the box was suspicious and the building was evacuated. Eventually it was traced back to the student who was arrested for 'leaving something that a reasonable person may think is a weapon of mass destruction.'"
It's pretty amazing. Sony doing something non-proprietary. What are they going to do next, use SD cards?!
"for no return other than glory and prestige." I wouldn't say that's entirely true: http://science.howstuffworks.com/ten-nasa-inventions1.htm http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml Some of these I would say were driven by NASA, but not necessarily invented.