NASA is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could take humans to Mars in a relatively short time, two months, instead of the current nine-month journey needed to reach the Red Planet. The program Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) recently selected six promising projects for further funding and development, allowing them to move into the second phase of development. The new ones “science fiction type concepts“, as John Nelson, NASA’s NIAC program manager, described them, include a lunar rail system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.
The potentially revolutionary propulsion system was developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To reach high speeds in a shorter period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use the nuclear fission – the release of energy from the splitting of atoms – to generate plasma packets for thrust. Essentially, it would produce a controlled jet of plasma to help push the rocket into space. Using the new propulsion system and in terms of thrust, the rocket could potentially generate up to 100,000 Newtons of force with a specific impulse (ISP) of 5,000 seconds, for remarkably high fuel efficiency.
This is not an entirely new concept
NASA began developing its own version in 2018 under the name Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF). The PuFF relied on a device commonly used to compress laboratory plasmas at high pressures for very short times, called a z-Pinch, to produce thrust. The pulsed plasma rocket, however, is smaller, simpler and more affordable, according to NASA. The space agency claims that the high efficiency of the propulsion system could allow it to complete missions with crew on Mars within two monthsthe. Currently, with commonly used propulsion systems, a trip to Mars takes about nine months. The less time humans can spend traveling in space, the better. Shorter periods of exposure to space radiation and microgravity could help mitigate its effects on the human body.
The potential to revolutionize space flight
The pulsed plasma rocket would also be capable of carrying much heavier spacecraft, which could be equipped with galactic cosmic ray shielding for the crew on board. Phase 2 of NIAC focuses on evaluating the system’s neutronics (how the motion of the spacecraft interacts with the plasma), designing the spacecraft, fuel system and necessary subsystems, determining the rocket’s trajectories and advantages pulsed plasma. The new propulsion system has the potential to revolutionize manned spaceflight, helping humans reach Mars without the hassle of the journey itself.
