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from https://gizmodo.com/nasa-pulsed-plasma-rocket-advanced-concept-mars-1851463831

NASA's Proposed Plasma Rocket Would Get Us to Mars in 2 Months
The space agency is investing in the development of a propulsion system
that uses nuclear power to create plasma bursts.
By
Passant Rabie
PublishedYesterday
Comments (28)
An illustration of a spacecraft with the pulsed plasma rocket.
An illustration of a spacecraft with the pulsed plasma
rocket.Screenshot: Howe Industries

The future of space travel depends on our ability to reach celestial pit
stops faster and more efficiently. As such, NASA is working with a
technology development company on a new propulsion system that could
drop off humans on Mars in a relatively speedy two months’ time rather
than the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet.

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them
to graduate to the second stage of development. The new “science
fiction-like concepts,” as described by John Nelson, NIAC program
executive at NASA, include a lunar railway system and fluid-based
telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket.

The potentially groundbreaking propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To reach high velocities within a shorter
period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use nuclear fission—the release of energy from atoms splitting apart—to generate packets of
plasma for thrust.

It would essentially produce a controlled jet of plasma to help propel
the rocket through space. Using the new propulsion system, and in terms
of thrust, the rocket could potentially generate up to 22,481 pounds of
force (100,000 Newtons) with a specific impulse (Isp) of 5,000 seconds,
for remarkably high fuel efficiency.


PPR Final Render w music
It’s not an entirely new concept. NASA began developing its own version
back in 2018 under the name Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF). PuFF relied on
a device commonly used to compress laboratory plasmas to high pressures
for very short timescales, called z-Pinch, to produce thrust. The pulsed
plasma rocket, however, is smaller, simpler, and more affordable,
according to NASA.

The space agency claims that the propulsion system’s high efficiency
could allow for crewed missions to Mars to be completed within two
months. As it stands today with commonly used propulsion systems, a trip
to Mars takes around nine months. The less time humans can spend
traveling through space, the better. Shorter periods of exposure to
space radiation and microgravity could help mitigate its effects on the
human body.

The pulsed plasma rocket would also be capable of carrying much heavier spacecraft, which can be then equipped with shielding against galactic
cosmic rays for the crew on board.

Phase 2 of NIAC is focused on assessing the neutronics of the system
(how the motion of the spacecraft interacts with the plasma), designing
the spacecraft, power system, and necessary subsystems, analyzing the
magnetic nozzle capabilities, and determining trajectories and benefits
of the pulsed plasma rocket, according to NASA.

The new propulsion system has the potential to revolutionize crewed spaceflight, helping humans make it to Mars without the toil of the trip itself.

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comments include

t Pat
Passant Rabie
5/08/24 1:53pm
yes, bringing fissile material up into space by (presumably) way of a
rocket, filled with explosive material, sounds like a peach of an idea. FFS

2
Reply4 replies

Dr Emilio Lizardo
Passant Rabie
5/08/24 2:17pm
That means you need to carry less supplies per person, which leaves more
room for other things. That kind of speed also extends the launch window
and makes you much less dependent on the relative location of the two
planets. It changes just about everything that makes the mission
logistically difficult. It doesn’t fix those problems, but it makes
them a lot simpler to solve with fewer complications.

16
Reply

ManOfConstantScience
Dr Emilio Lizardo
5/08/24 2:43pm
And it means they have to worry less about a surprise solar storm giving
the entire crew radiation poisoning on the way.

Darwinian Man
ManOfConstantScience
5/08/24 4:08pm
It says that the rocket can propel heavier spacecraft, which would allow
for a decently-sized solar storm refuge within the ship if there was a
solar storm en route,

2
Reply

Thomas Hajicek
Darwinian Man
5/08/24 4:21pm
But how will we get the Fantastic 4 then?

8
Reply

Darwinian Man
Thomas Hajicek
5/08/24 6:11pm
Good point.

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