Revolution in space travel: Mars journey could be reduced to 2 months

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Lerato Khumalo

With current technology, a round trip to the Red Planet would take almost two years, and for astronauts, spending that much time in spaceflight poses major health risks.

Because astronauts must be exposed to high levels of solar and cosmic radiation, the harmful effects of zero gravity and long periods of isolation.

Space radiation is arguably the biggest threat to space work. According to NASA, astronauts spending just six months in space are exposed to the same amount of radiation as someone exposed to about a thousand chest X-rays.

This puts them at risk of cancer, nervous system damage, bone loss, and heart disease.

Pulsed Plasma Rocket (Howe Industries)

THE ONLY WAY IS TO SHORTEN TRAVEL TIME

The best way to reduce radiation exposure and other harmful health effects is to reduce travel time, Howe Industries President Troy Howe told Business Insider.

That’s why it partnered with NASA to develop the Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR), a new rocket system that could shorten the round-trip journey to Mars to two months.

NASA said in a statement that the technology “has the potential to revolutionize space exploration” and could one day take humans farther than Mars.

HOW CAN A ROCKET TAKE US TO MARS AND BACK IN TWO MONTHS?

PPR is a propulsion system that uses superheated plasma pulses to produce a lot of thrust very efficiently.

It is currently in the second phase of development funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program.

Phase two work is scheduled to begin this month and focuses on optimizing the engine design, conducting proof-of-concept experiments, and designing a PPR-powered, shielded spacecraft for manned missions to Mars.

The big advantage of PPR is that it can move a spacecraft really quickly.

It has both high thrust and high specific impulse.

Specific impulse is how quickly a rocket engine produces thrust, and thrust is the force that moves the spacecraft.

PPR produces 10 thousand newtons of thrust with a specific impulse of 5 thousand seconds.

IT’S ABOUT A FEW MORE DECADES BEFORE IT’S READY TO LAUNCH TO MARS

This means that a PPR-equipped spacecraft carrying four to six passengers could travel at speeds of about 100 thousand miles per hour.

Even after the second phase is completed, it will still be several decades before the PPR is ready to launch astronauts to Mars.

But once it’s ready for spaceflight, Howe hopes the technology will significantly expand the scope of human space exploration, perhaps even aiding missions to Pluto one day.