In a recent Nova segment on PBS, the topic was improvements that will allow us to travel to Mars much faster - 35 miles per second in space.
Chapter 5 of the video below discusses Plasma Rockets as a means to travel much faster than currently possible - mere months rather than 2.5 years using current rocket technologies. Called the Vasomere, it uses nuclear reactors to heat argon gas to plasma stage - creating super fast movement, in addition to super heat!! Tests have hit over a million degrees. The current idea is to use superconducting magnets to contain the plasma in a magnetic field - protecting the surrounding materials from instant vaporization.
Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.
The Vasomere is set to be tested in space in 2014. From that point, this amazing technological innovation has enormous potential to change the global economy in dramatic ways. Along with other advances in space exploration technology, the Vasomere brings us into the realm of making colonizing or pulling resources from nearby planets a possibility. And, with the enormous increase in speed, it gives us the option to send unmanned probes out farther and faster in exploration. Depending on what we find out there, manned missions could follow.
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