Reaching the Red Planet could take dramatically less time than once thought using the high-tech VASIMR rocket, according to one scientist. THE GIST: The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket is quickly becoming a centerpiece of NASA's future space strategy. The rocket would use electricity to transform fuel -- likely hydrogen, helium or deuterium -- into plasma gas. The use of ionized fuel could have the extra benefit of helping create a magnetic field around the spacecraft to protect against radiation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A journey from Earth to Mars could in the future take just 39 days -- cutting current travel time nearly six times -- according to a rocket scientist who has the ear of the U.S. 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, now on track for lift-off after decades of development. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket -- to give its full name -- is quickly becoming a centerpiece of NASA's future strategy as it looks to private firms to help meet the astronomical costs of space exploration. NASA, still reeling from a political decision to cancel its Constellation program that would have returned a human to the moon by the end of the decade, has called on firms to provide new technology to power rovers or even future manned missions. 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 51.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (11 million degrees Celsius). The plasma gas is then channeled 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. Chang-Diaz, a veteran of seven space missions, said this rapid acceleration could allow for trips of just 39 days instead of the current anticipated round trip voyage to Mars that would last three years, including a forced stay of 18 months on the Red Planet, as astronauts await an opening to return to Earth. The distance between the Earth and Mars varies between 35 and 250 million miles (55 million and 400 million kilometers) depending on their points of orbit. And the use of ionized fuel could have the extra benefit of helping create a magnetic field around the spacecraft to protect against radiation. Scaled-down models of the VASIMR craft have been built and tested in a vacuum, under a deal with NASA. The next major step, according to Chang-Diaz, will be orbital deployment at the end of 2013 of a vessel using the 200-kilowatt prototype VASIMR engine, the VX-200. Talks are underway with fellow space firms SpaceX and Orbital Science Corp to make that a reality. Despite the hurdles ahead, Chang-Diaz sees the potential for a vast market for his technology -- maintaining and repairing fixing satellites or launching robotic and commercial missions to Mars. His rocket may just launch NASA's brave new, commercial, world of space exploration. http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-rocket-vasimr-nasa.html
I could give a (*)(*)(*)(*) about getting to Mars in 39 days, but getting to the Belt in ~50 days? That's awesome. We'll need the Belt's resources if we are going to build permanent orbital colonies or colonies on the Moon or Mars.
This is very interesting and a step in the right direction concerning space exploration in general, however I am not sure if this design would be so astonishingly practical in terms of time-cutting measures of getting to Mars, a planet which is afterall not too distant. All ion propulsion engines have this in common that they accelerate at a very slow rate (it takes a great deal of time to get them up to speed), but they maintain acceleration over a very long time and eventually achieve velocities much greater than chemical rockets. Chemical-fuel engines deliver a short but significant boost in speed, but then for the rest of the trip they idle and rely on things like gravitational acceleration. So for very distant mission you need ion propulsion. For shorter ones, chemical rockets are more practical. Mars you would guess fits somewhere in the middle. It also isn't true that NASA has not been able to think ahead and were trapped in the Apollo-era time warp. They in fact pioneered the practical applications for ion propulsion starting with the Deep Space 1 launched in 1998.
For mining operations, low delta-v is more important than time taken to get there. There's already very, very energy-inexpensive ways to get materials to and from the asteroid belt from earth orbit... if you're in no particular hurry. Even if it takes three years for the first shipment to get from the asteroid to Earth, there would be a continuous stream after that. That's assuming you'd even bother with the asteroid belt rather than some of the much closer asteroids. Or the asteroids in any of Earth's lagrange points (at least one is known to exist, and there are probably others). It might be easier to just move an asteroid into a convenient position than it would be to travel to and from the asteroid on a long-term basis.
'Warp speed' more feasible than thought?... 'Warp drive' may be more feasible than thought, scientists say September 17, 2012 - Faster-than-light travel popularized in 'Star Trek'
