This NASA-Funded Pulsed Plasma Propulsion System Could Carry Humans to Mars In Just Two Months

The Debrief ^ | May 21, 2024 | Micah Hanks

[TangoLimaSierra]

How long does it take to slow down to orbital speed?

If they use the same propulsion system they would have turn turn the vehicle around about halfway.
Unless they are going to use air-braking at Mars. Is there enough atmosphere to do that at that mass and speed?

[The Louiswu]

So, to reach halfway to Mars in 30 days, you would need to travel at approximately 8.4 million miles per hour.

the other 30 days will be needed to slow down. Hmmmmmm

[Red Badger]

Just turn it around....................

[zeestephen]

Mars atmosphere has less than 1% the density of Earth atmosphere.

As much as I love the film The Martian (Matt Damon), the raging Martian dust storm that sets up the entire story line lacks the density to blow around large objects or blow over a space craft.

[sauropod]

.

[zeestephen]

Re: "Max speed"

You misunderstand.

What is the max speed achieved by the space craft after acceleration stops?

Typical Mars-Earth transit - 12 months

New transit - 2 months

Probably LESS than 6X times usual speed.

Probably flies a much straighter line towards Mars, which would cut down the distance, which would reduce travel time.

[Fungi]

“boasting potential distances of up to 550 astronomical units (roughly 51126 miles,
or 82,280 kilometers)”
An astronomical unit is 92 million miles.
Where did they get those figures?

[kosciusko51]

5000 seconds is specific impulse (exit velocity divided by 32.174 ft/s^2), not burn time.

[Red Badger]

The 'max speed' is unknown until they actually build one I suppose. The geeks on FR could get out their slide rules and figure it out on a theoretical basis.

[M Kehoe]

I wonder what we are going to do with the Klingons?

5.56mm

[Red Badger]

Banish them to Uranus........................

[Carl Vehse]

"The resulting thrust is produced as combustion propagates and expands against a magnetic nozzle through a process known as deflagration, which involves electrical discharges that create strong magnetic fields and produce high plasma densities and temperatures."

Gobbledygook.

[beethovenfan]

Only what you see, pal.

[steve86]

Inter-planet acceleration is gravity assisted, utilizing gravity of earth - moon - solar system. The main function of the propulsion system is to put the spacecraft in a position to take advantage of gravity for “slingshot” effect.

[hal ogen]

I support funding this if all LIBs, lefties and communists HAVE TO go to Mars. If that were the case, I would say expedite this program.

[steve86]

And that’s why Voyager 1 has reached 11 miles/second relative to the solar system.

[kosciusko51]

Just don’t send all the telephone sanitizers...

[Glad2bnuts]

Exactly, I am leaning more and more to the space adventures/ventures being part of the military industrial scam. Throw Billions away, politicians get rich, we get some good AI generated images from artists renditions. Like the space telescope. What is the difference between imaging cells, DNA, etc versus planets, moons, galaxies? It takes special equipment and computers to put together the images. Nothing is real.

I know to look through a telescope I can see Venus, some moons, but I am actually seeing them. Not taking slices of a view and stitching them together.

[Lurker]

“I would like a Pulsed Plasma Propulsion System in the 40-watt range.”

Just what you see here, pal.

L

[Reynoldo]

But hey—we got 40 years of Low-Earth-Orbit !!
😬 😡 😐 🫤