New Rocket Engine Could Reach Mars in 40 Days.

Space.com ^ | 3/6/2010 | Jeremy Hsu

[BigCinBigD]

What about the rest of the ship?

:^)

[LukeL]

The other problem is getting back. You would need an external fuel source to leave both Earth and Martian gravity, so dumping the rockets would not be an option.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

That is up to NASA or a person with deep pockets.

[piytar]

Carter /spit signed off on a treaty that killed the Orion project, which by now would have us moving at a significant fraction of c (speed of light). So I’m sure obama will sign off on something similar that will kill this. Why? Because they are both first and foremost anti-America, and this kind of advance is too much for America to own in their putrid minds...

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The 1963 Test Ban Treaty and the 1967 Outer Space Treaty killed the Orion project.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

In the 1954 Operation Castle nuclear test series at Bikini Atoll, a crucial experiment by Lew Allen proved that nuclear explosives could be used for propulsion

[piytar]

That’s actually manageable. For getting out of Earth’s gravity well, you use multiple missions and built the ship in orbit. For getting out of Mars’ gravity well, you have to bring along quite a bit of fuel. However, Mars’ gravity is significantly less than Earth’s because it has about one tenth the mass. Also, some of the needed fuel can be made on Mars, esp if you can find water under the soil.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Two graphite-covered steel spheres were suspended near the test article for the Castle Bravo shot. After the explosion, they were found intact some distance away, proving that engineered structures could survive a nuclear fireball

[dr_lew]

A mission trajectory study estimated that a VASIMR-powered spacecraft could reach the red planet within 40 days if it had a 200 megawatt power source. That's 1,000 times more power than what the current VASIMR prototype will use, although Ad Astra says that VASIMR can scale up to higher power sources.

What couldn't we all do with a thousand times more power.

[eclecticEel]

It’s not gonna get us out of the Earth gravity well - where the real obstacle to space travel lies.

[piytar]

My bad, I thought Carter signed off on the Outer Space Treaty. Didn’t realize it was a done deal before he was elected.

[BigCinBigD]

Propellant can be made from materials on Mars.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Its all right.

[Pontiac]

Ad Astra sees nuclear power as the likeliest power source for a VASIMR-powered Mars mission, but the nuclear reactor that could do the job remains just a concept on paper. The U.S. only ever launched one nuclear reactor into space back in 1965, and it achieved just 50 kg/kW.

Kiwi Rockets

Kiwi A rocket

[wally_bert]

Sad and most likely correct with the current so-called leadership.

[mountainlion]

Sounds real convenient on the timing. Could be the global warming equivalent for getting funding for space.

[Beowulf9]

Mars ping.

[Brett66]

This has been under development since the 70’s, it’s hardly a new technology.

I’m glad to hear Franklin Chang Diaz has went into the commercial field though, they should be able to get these working as positioning thrusters for satellites.

This propulsion is like anything else, they COULD do a lot with it - if they had a MW class nuclear reactor to power it.

Since that’s a political barrier instead of a technical one, I don’t suspect we’ll progress past where we went in the 60’s with that idea, but a lower powered solar version may actually get used in space.

[ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY]

Those treaties haven’t prevented us from using nuclear power for other spacecraft. There had to be something more.