The future of space travel depends on our ability to reach celestial stops more quickly and efficiently. As such, NASA is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could take humans to Mars in the relatively quick time of two months. than the current nine-month journey needed to reach the Red Planet.
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NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to advance to the second stage. development. The new “science fiction concepts”, such as described by John Nelson, NIAC program executive at NASA, include a lunar rail system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.
The potentially innovative propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To achieve high speeds in a shorter period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use nuclear fission (the release of energy from splitting atoms) to generate plasma packets for its thrust.
Basically, it would produce a controlled jet of plasma to help propel the rocket through space. Using the new propulsion system and in terms of thrust, the rocket could potentially generate up to 22,481 pounds of force (100,000 Newtons) with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds, for remarkably high fuel efficiency.
It is not a completely new concept. NASA began developing its own version in 2018 under the name Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF). It was based on a device commonly used to compress laboratory plasmas at high pressures for very short time scales, called a z-Pinch, to produce thrust. The pulsed plasma rocket, however, is smaller, simpler and more affordable, according to POT.
The space agency claims the high efficiency of the propulsion system could allow crewed missions to Mars to be completed within two months. Currently, with the most widely used propulsion systems, a trip to Mars takes about nine months. The less time humans can spend traveling through space, the better. Shorter periods of exposure to space radiation and microgravity could help mitigate their effects on the human body.
The pulsed plasma rocket would also be capable of carrying much heavier spacecraft, which could then be equipped with shielding against galactic cosmic rays for the crew on board.
NIAC Phase 2 focuses on evaluating the neutronics of the system (how the motion of the spacecraft interacts with the plasma), designing the spacecraft, the power system and the necessary subsystems, analyzing the capabilities of the magnetic nozzles and determining the trajectories and benefits of the pulsed plasma rocket. according to NASA.
The new propulsion system has the potential to revolutionize human spaceflight, helping humans reach Mars without the effort of the trip itself.
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