Reaching mars in just 39 days with plasma rocket

The News Minute | April 6, 2015 | 8:30 am ISTA US-based rocket propulsion company is developing an engine that could take humans to the Red Planet in just 39 days and it has got funding from

NASA to accomplish the task.A spacecraft normally takes several months to reach Mars. According to Franklin Chang-Diaz, CEO of the Ad Astra Rocket Company from Texas, new rocket engine

technology has the potential to be revolutionary."This is like no other rocket that you may have seen in the past. It is a plasma rocket. The Vasimr rocket is not used for launching

things. It is used for things already there, which we call 'in space propulsion'," said Chang-Diaz, also a former astronaut, in a promotional video.The Vasimr engine works by

heating plasma, an electrically charged gas, to extreme temperatures using radio waves. Strong magnetic fields then funnel this plasma out of the back of the engine.This, in turn, creates

thrust, helping to propel the engine at extreme speeds, RT.com reported.NASA liked what it saw this technology and offered a grant to the Ad Astra Rocket Company as part of its 12 Next Space

Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextStep) programme."The partnership [with NASA] will advance the Vasimr engine to a technology readiness level (TRL) greater than 5 -- a

step closer to space flight," the company announced in a statement.Over a three-year period, NASA will give the Texas-based company in the region of $10 million to fully develop a new

version of the Vasimr engine.According to the company, they could save thousands of gallons of rocket fuel by using the Vasimr engine, which would save around $20 million in one year.IANS