- NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s, but with current technology, the journey will take years.
- That’s why NASA has invested in a new type of rocket that could shorten the journey to just two months.
- Reducing the amount of time astronauts spend in space is crucial to their health.
NASA has invested $725,000 in a new rocket system that could solve one of the biggest obstacles to space exploration. Sending humans to Mars: Travel time.
With current technology, a round trip to Mars would take nearly two years, and spending that much time in space poses significant health risks for astronauts.
They are exposed to high levels of sunlight, Cosmic radiationthe harmful effects of weightlessness, and long periods of isolation.
Space radiation is perhaps the biggest threat: Astronauts spending six months in space are exposed to roughly the same amount of radiation as 1,000 chest x-rays, putting them at risk for cancer, nervous system damage, osteoporosis, heart disease and more. according to To NASA.
The best way to reduce radiation exposure and other harmful health effects is to shorten the duration of the trip, Troy Howe, president of Howe Industries, told Business Insider, which is why he’s partnered with NASA to develop a new rocket system called the Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR) that could shorten the round trip to Mars to just two months.
The technology “has the potential to revolutionize space exploration,” NASA said in the report. statementAnd maybe one day it will be able to take humans even further than Mars.
How a rocket could get to Mars and back in two months
PPR is Propulsion System The rocket uses pulses of super-hot plasma to generate high thrust very efficiently. It is currently in its second phase of development and is funded by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
This second phase of research is scheduled to begin this month and will focus on optimizing the engine design, conducting proof-of-concept experiments and designing a PPR-powered, shielded spacecraft. Manned mission to Mars.
The big advantage of PPRs is that they can make spacecraft go very fast. They have high thrust and high specific impulse. Specific impulse is how fast a rocket engine can produce thrust, and thrust is the force that moves a spacecraft.
The PPR produces 10,000 newtons of thrust with a specific impulse of 5,000 seconds, meaning a spacecraft equipped with a PPR could carry four to six passengers at speeds of about 100,000 miles per hour, Howe told BI in an email.
A spacecraft traveling that fast will eventually have to slow down to reach its destination, and Howe said the company is factoring in the extra energy and propellant needed to land on Mars.
Even after the second stage is complete, it will still be about 20 years before PPR is ready to launch astronauts to the Red Planet, but Howe hopes that the technology will greatly expand the reach of spaceflight once it becomes possible. Human space explorationIt may even be useful for future missions to Pluto.
“You can achieve anything you want. Solar System “Hopefully, in 20 years’ time, this technology will be operational,” he said.
