NASA is Shortening the Travel Time to Mars: But How?
NASA aims to shorten the duration of the trip to Mars and realize manned travel. But how? Here are the details!
The future of space travel depends on how fast we can get to where we plan to go. That’s why NASA is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could get humans to Mars in as little as two months, instead of the current nine-month journey required to reach the Red Planet.
NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to move into the second phase of development.
Described as “science fiction-like” by John Nelson, NIAC program manager at NASA, the new concepts include a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.
Travel Time to Mars Will Reduce to Two Hours
The potentially groundbreaking propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. The pulsed plasma rocket will benefit propulsion by using nuclear fusion (the release of energy from the splitting of atoms) to reach high speeds in a shorter period of time.
NASA claims that the high efficiency of the propulsion system could allow crewed missions to Mars to be completed within two months. With today’s commonly used propulsion systems, the journey to Mars takes about nine months. The pulsed plasma rocket will also be able to carry much heavier spacecraft, which could then be equipped with shielding against galactic cosmic rays for the crew.
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