The ion engine delivers to Mars in 39 days

While NASA is trying to send astronauts to the moon once again, the heroes themselves who visited there 40 years ago say that there is nothing interesting on the moon . According to them, a really interesting target is Mars. But critics object that the flight to Mars can be unbearably difficult. Six months in outer space only in one direction - is it possible to transfer this without damage to health? Unknown. However, there is a way out. Now scientists have begun to test the new ion engine, which is able to reduce the travel time to just 39 days. About the same time, ships with European settlers traveled to America a century ago.

The ion engine is well known to us from science fiction novels. The principle of its operation consists in the ionization of a gas and its acceleration by an electrostatic field. Ions give much less thrust than chemical fuel, so that such an engine will not be able to give the rocket even the first cosmic velocity. But if you launch it in space, it can work literally for years on end, accelerating the ship to unprecedented speeds.

Some space missions have already used such engines, including in the Japanese Hayabusa ship (2005, flight to Itokawa asteroid), as well as in the American Dawn ship, which started in September 2007 to the asteroids West and Ceres.
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But the new model of the engine called VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) will be hundreds of times more powerful than the previous ion engines due to the use of not standard metal grids , but a radio frequency generator that does not come into physical contact with the gas as the grids .

The engine was developed by Ad Astra Rocket, which was founded in 2005 by a plasma physics specialist and former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz. Two weeks ago, the first successful testing of a new engine ( video ) took place at Ad Astra Rocket headquarters.

The creation of plasma occurs in the first stage of the ion engines. In the second stage, with the help of a powerful electromagnetic field, the ions are heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, as in the center of the sun. The ions fly out of the nozzle and push the rocket in the opposite direction.

Now began testing the second stage of the engine VASIMR. There is already an agreement with NASA to install a new engine on the International Space Station in 2012 or 2013.

In a lightweight version, the VASIMR ion engine can operate exclusively on solar energy. This is enough to carry cargo on Earth orbit or to the Moon. But to get to Mars, you need a more serious energy source. Specifically, you need 1000 times more energy than solar batteries can give. Apparently, this engine will need a portable nuclear reactor. Similar technologies were developed in the USSR in the 60s, although they were never tested in space. Apparently, now their time has come.

The possibility of reaching Mars in 39 days on an ion engine with a nuclear reactor was recently debated by a new director of NASA. He said that the space agency provided small scholarships for research in this area, and he looks forward to working with private businesses, for example, with the same Ad Astra Rocket.