Earth to Mars in 39 Days


A six-month space journey away, Mars often seems an almost impossible planet to reach. But engineers are developing a new engine that could turn six months to six weeks, bringing the Red Planet much, much closer than ever before.

Using the traditional fuel-burning rockets that carried humans on lunar missions, it would take a manned spacecraft six months to travel from the Earth to Mars. While you could find volunteers in spades willing to trade a year in a tin can for a glimpse of another planet, osteoporosis-inducing weightlessness and dangerous radiation render a lengthy trip unfeasible. But attention has turned to ion engines. While a combustion rocket thrusts a space shuttle through the atmosphere, then lets it coast to its destination, ion engines are able to effect a more continuous thrust:

Ion engines, on the other hand, accelerate electrically charged atoms, or ions, through an electric field, thereby pushing the spacecraft in the opposite direction. They provide much less thrust at a given moment than do chemical rockets, which means they can't break free of the Earth's gravity on their own.

But once in space, they can give a continuous push for years, like a steady breeze at the back of a sailboat, accelerating gradually until they're moving faster than chemical rockets.

Engineers at the Ad Astra are seeing promise in VASIMR, an ion engine that uses a radio frequency generator to heat charged particles and create greater thrust than other similar engines. Ad Astra plans to attach a solar-powered VASIMR engine to the International Space Station for tests, and, if they are successful, could use VASIMR periodically to thrust the ISS back into the Earth's orbit.

But, if the engine were powered by an onboard nuclear reactor, its applications could be much more profound. Using 1000 times the energy of a solar-powered VASIMR, a nuclear-powered VASIMR engine could propel a manned spacecraft to Mars in a mere 39 days. Although the technology to play a nuclear reactor on a space shuttle is still a ways off, many in astrophysics feel the project holds enormous promise. NASA has provided Ad Astra with a small stipend for VASIMR development, and NASA chief Charles Bolden had high praise for the possibility of shortened space travel:

If engines, such as VASIMR, could be developed to take people to the Red Planet in 40 days, "that puts it inside the range of what we feel comfortable of doing with humans," he told New Scientist. "Something like VASIMR – that's a game changer."

after this we can transfer all our environmental polluting industries to Mars... so that greener earth can be achieved 

then you will have more overpriced goods on earth.

currently we have a couple of deep space probes that uses ion engine powered by solar energy, the first one was launched back in 2000 iirc. so this technology has been around for a while, but yea i guess the real challenge is having a nuclear reactor to power one.

US got NO extra money to do space research

they pull out a lot of budget before .... this publisity is to spur the public to change Obama policy ... NASA got no extra funding .... a lot of research has been abandoned ...

its a sign of times. the space golden age was in the 50-60's where the tech was also used to build ICBMs. when the threat of ICBM from Russia is no longer there i can see why they face budget cuts

the shuttle for example was suppose to be used only for 25 years. as it stands the shuttle programme is long overdue for a new shuttle design. with the collapse of the world economy i think the future of space exploration will be gloomy. by 2015 the ISS will deorbit

YES! they will let he ISS tumble back to earth. Neither NASA,ESA nor Russian space administrator see any reason to keep it afloat. The only people interested in space programme is CHINA. so better hope china will do something!

but China is building their OWN spacestation ..... unless ... United Nations cannot support the Space Station (which is a laughter, they cannot take it) ... maybe they'll either rent it out ... or sell it ...

dun worry about that le ....... UN will always have the IMF to borrow money from ..... and NASA may have reduced most of their funded researches ... but not the private funded ones ..... plus .... they just not doing anything special ... but to revert to the status: IDLE (or relaxing holiday)
but now they US itself is holding their own states together (takut pecah like USSR) .... the threat of their states going independent is very real .... checkout California's local politics

since US is actually not a FAIR country .... some states are producing more, some are less .. they argue a lot of the GDP per state .... plus their country is far too large ...... their state ppl love their state more than their country ... (e.g. even their own state police hates FBI)

i believe ... we might see the US to split in our lifetime ... or US might change its own policies and become kuku besi to their own country to keep their states together (which even worst - Militarism)

fallen of democracy champion...

maybe its better to spend more on earth protection... protection from pollution, meteor...

spending a lot for knowledge about something beyond our need is just a luxury that we might need to put aside for the time being...

fallen of democracy champion...

maybe its better to spend more on earth protection... protection from pollution, meteor...

spending a lot for knowledge about something beyond our need is just a luxury that we might need to put aside for the time being...

yes... science is important to improve our life... there are many branches of science... even for space exploration... there is so many research going on where it cost billions... some of the research is necessary but some can be consider as luxury for this time...

not sure about other ppl... but for me... research like finding another planet that can support life in our galaxy seem to be unnecessary for the time being... eventhough if we know there are some suitable planet for human in out there... we still don't have the technology to go there... and actually transport human colony to live there...

this kind of research might be significance once we have discover the way to travel faster than the speed of light...

US got NO extra money to do space research

they pull out a lot of budget before .... this publisity is to spur the public to change Obama policy ... NASA got no extra funding .... a lot of research has been abandoned ...

If we dont have ion engines now,how we gonna get an engine that travel in speed of light?

It's like trying to make a jump between steam engines to hydrogen powered electric cars.

you missed my point... just because i say 1 space research is less important... doesn't mean all of them fall in the same category...

what i say... we need to focus the research on technology that will enable us to travel faster than light... if this is possible... only then, the search on suitable planet in our galaxy will be significance...

right now... scientist are talking about far away planet which has been discovered that MIGHT be able to support life. So far no solid prove, its all based on theory. Even if it is true, it will took thousand of light years to travel to that planet.

Back to the budget... with the current economy, budget has been cut. The question is... which research need to be focused on and which one that can hold. Everything is important... but some are be more important that the others.

We will never be able to travel faster than light. Nothing can travel faster than light. The only way to reach another destination ahead of light if both start from the same point is by using extreme curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects like a blackhole.

Idea of searching for other planets that may support our future need not depend on the ability to get in a short period of time. So what if it takes 10000 years to reach that destination. It is easier to build a huge spaceship that can support a thousand generations of humans than trying to beat the speed of light.

you missed my point... just because i say 1 space research is less important... doesn't mean all of them fall in the same category...

what i say... we need to focus the research on technology that will enable us to travel faster than light... if this is possible... only then, the search on suitable planet in our galaxy will be significance...

right now... scientist are talking about far away planet which has been discovered that MIGHT be able to support life. So far no solid prove, its all based on theory. Even if it is true, it will took thousand of light years to travel to that planet.

Back to the budget... with the current economy, budget has been cut. The question is... which research need to be focused on and which one that can hold. Everything is important... but some are be more important that the others.