The space agency is investing in the development of a propulsion system that uses nuclear power to create plasma bursts.

Last week, NASA announced it is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could transport humans to Mars in only two months – down from the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet. Gizmodo reports:

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. […]

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.

Abstract credit: https://slashdot.org/story/428225

    • FatLegTed@feddit.ukEnglish
      9·
      6 months ago

      So nothing like an Epstein drive then?

      Might be good for a remote ice hauler though.

      • Boddhisatva@kbin.social
        10·
        6 months ago

        Maybe more like the drive that Solomon Epstein started with in the novella, The Drive, but with fission instead of fusion. I don’t think it would be any good for a manned ice-hauler trip out past the belt though as that would face the same problems that a trip to Mars currently faces.

        On the other hand, if such a drive could get a crewed ship to Mars in two months then it should be able to reach the outer planets in a reasonable time with a much larger payload than we can manage now. We might well be able to send large robotic probes to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter like the ones we’ve sent to Mars and get there in months instead of years.

    • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
      91·
      6 months ago

      Well, it’s a start. Once we’ve used it to colonise Mars and we have affordable private ships some Martian dude can overtune his and become famous and (posthumously) extremely wealthy…

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
      6·
      6 months ago

      Larry Niven’s 'Footfalls was one of the better depictions of a nuclear pulse propulsion engine in Science Fiction.

      • fubarx@lemmy.ml
        41·
        6 months ago

        IIRC, the concern with Project Orion was that if nuclear fissile material exploded in the upper atmosphere, it could get trapped and basically poison the entire planet, making it uninhabitable for a really long time.

        The problem may not be solved with deregulation alone.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
          21·
          6 months ago

          Lol. Deregulation will cause the problem. The corporations have bought all our governments. They will make it legal to take fissile material onboard, and damn the consequences. They don’t care about our world, and are looking for any excuse they can have to create more damage in the name of fictional profits.

    • linuxgator@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      They can just go raid some of the Russian satellites that already have the fissionable material onboard.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      6 months ago

      Probably a much smaller and more controlled thrust, as opposed to something needing what the Orion needed. I’d imagine if this ship were to blow on the way to space, the fallout would be pretty minimal, by comparison.

  • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
    51·
    6 months ago

    What would the benefit be in a manned flight to Mars? It would seem they would be able to do less than robotic systems would.

    • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      91·
      6 months ago

      The first thing I can think of is sample collection. Right now, all the Mars missions have been one-way trips, and there’s only so much you can gain from the readouts sent by the rovers. Plus, a crewed mission would be able to bring more varied equipment with them for data collection.

      It would also be a major milestone in space travel. Mars is our closest neighbor, and being able to send a crewed mission there makes a whole bevy of other missions more probable.

      Why did we send manned flights to the moon when we had already sent rovers there?