NASA-funded pulsed plasma rocket concept aims to send astronauts to Mars in 2 months
Posted: Sun May 19, 2024 10:51 am
- An illustration of Howe Industries' Pulsed Plasma Rocket.PNG (213.79 KiB) Viewed 615 times
An innovative rocket system could revolutionize future deep space missions to Mars, reducing travel time to the Red Planet to just a few months.
The goal of landing humans on Mars has presented a myriad of challenges, including the need to quickly transport large payloads to and from the distant planet, which, depending on the positions of Earth and Mars, would take almost two years for a round trip using current propulsion technology.
The Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR), under development by Howe Industries, is a propulsion system designed to be far more efficient than current methods of deep space propulsion, enabling the trip between Earth and the Red Planet to be made in just two months. Specifically, the rocket will have a high specific impulse or Isp, a measure of how efficiently an engine generates thrust. This technology could therefore enable astronauts and cargo to travel to and from Mars more efficiently and rapidly than existing spacecraft, according to a statement from NASA. https://www.space.com/nasa-pulsed-plasm ... industries