Posted on 02/26/2010 2:39:44 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A journey from Earth to Mars could eventually take just 39 days -- cutting current travel time nearly six times -- according to a rocket scientist who has the ear of the US space agency.
Franklin Chang-Diaz, a former astronaut and a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says reaching the Red Planet could be dramatically quicker using his high-tech VASIMR rocket, ..
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket -- to give its full name -- is quick becoming a centerpiece of NASA's future strategy as it looks to private firms to help meet the astronomical costs of space exploration.
...
Hopes are now pinned on firms like Chang-Diaz's Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Company.
"In the early days... NASA support for the project was rather minimal because the agency did not emphasize advanced technologies as much as it's doing now," Chang-Diaz told AFP.
NASA was focused instead on the series of Apollo missions that delivered men to the moon for the first, and so far last, times.
"They were mesmerized by the Apollo days and lived in the Apollo era for 40 years, and they just forgot developing something new," he said.
Chang-Diaz, 60, hopes that "something" is a non-chemical rocket that eventually allow for a manned trip to Mars -- long the Holy Grail for Apollonians.
His rocket would use electricity to transform a fuel -- likely hydrogen, helium or deuterium -- into plasma gas that is heated to 19.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (11 million degrees Celsius). The plasma gas is then channelled into tailpipes using magnetic fields to propel the spacecraft.
That would send a shuttle hurtling toward the moon or Mars at ever faster speeds up to an estimated 35 miles (55 kilometers) per second until the engines are reversed.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Speed really makes all the difference in making space accessible. Less time in space equals less risk and less of the damaging effects of zero G living.
I think the 39 day transit time is based on the VASIMR having a nuclear powerplant to generate the necessary energy needed for the trip. VASIMR is supposed to get it’s first test in space this year aboard the ISS. It is also being eyed as a tug for moving payloads to the moon. It’s essentially a continuation and improvement of the Ion engines currently being used but it produces more thrust and can be throttled.
I can’t be the only person on the net that read the headline and immediately heard Steppenwolf doing ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ in my mind’s ear. :-)
Let’s send Al Gore on a test run.
/
Makes sense and the cargo can take the long, slow road.
Al Gore invented the VASIMR rocket.
Earth University?
Liberia?
“I can’t be the only person on the net that read the headline and immediately heard Steppenwolf doing ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ in my mind’s ear. :-)”
Well, thanks. Now I can’t get it out of my head :\
Houston - We have a problem.
To say nothing about the Klingons.
Constant thrust is a lot better than the old few minutes of thrust followed by days of coasting to the moon.
I was really amazed at how far the speed fell off while watching the Apollo 11 telemetry during the 40th anniversary replays. The craft fell to fighter jet speeds before it started accelerating into the moon’s gravity well.
Let’s see a working prototype first.
Coast to coast in under two minutes!
39 days is based on some theoretical speed from an engine that hasn’t been built. Besides, even if they could do the trip in 39 days, they would have to wait for a year for the earth and Mars to be close enough for the return trip.
This reminds me of the episode where the test pilots were discussing about getting past the sound barrier in “The Right Stuff” and that it was an impenetrable barrier.
barry says, forget it.
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