Science- A new aerospace company is building a rocket that could cut the travel time to Mars in half.
- They are hoping to have a working rocket by the end of the decade.
Elon Musk thinks a nuclear-powered rocket would be a great way to travel quickly through space, and now a rival company is building just that.
UK-based aerospace company Pulsar Fusion is working to build a rocket powered by nuclear fusion that could reach speeds of 500,000 mph, the company announced. This new rocket from Pulsar Fusion is so fast — and hotter than the sun, but let's ignore that for now — it could cut the travel time to Mars in half, and people could reach the red planet in weeks instead of months.
Recent research has concluded that a trip to Mars would be safe-ish if they make it back home in under four years and don't spend too much time exposed to radiation and the lack of gravity. With current technology, NASA estimates it would take seven months to reach Mars, so about 30% of the total "safe" trip time would be wasted in transit. Cut the travel time in half, and people would have a lot more time to run tests and hang out on Mars' surface.
Even Musk has expressed interest in the potential for nuclear-power rockets. In response to a story about using nuclear rockets to reach Mars in 100 days, he said it was something NASA should be exploring, calling it a "great idea."
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2019
But instead of NASA building the rocket, it is being built by a rival start-up.
"Humanity has a huge need for faster propulsion in our growing space economy, and fusion offers 1,000 times the power of the conventional ion thrusters currently used in orbit," Richard Dinan, the CEO of Pulsar Fusion, said in a statement. "If humans can achieve fusion for energy, then fusion propulsion in space is inevitable."
We haven't yet reached Mars, but this tech is so exciting they are already talking about using it to send people to see other tourist hotspots in space, like Jupiter's moons (there sure are a lot of them, nearly 100).
"[A] fusion rocket could allow us to send people to Mars and bring them back in weeks, not months or years," said Pulsar propulsion engineer Adam Baker. "It could allow us to do round trips to the outer planets of the solar system, to send people to see the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter."
Of course, there are still obstacles to overcome — e.g., small things like "how to hold and confine the super-hot plasma within an electromagnetic field," as the company's CFO, Dr. James Lambert, mentioned.
Earlier this year, Musk said it was "highly likely" that people will visit Mars within 10 years, and he hopes to colonize the planet by 2050. Pulsar Fusion is looking to have a test firing of a rocket toward the end of this decade.
In other words, the race is on!