NASA's New Plan Could Make It Possible For Rockets To Reach Mars In 45 Days
NDTV
Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion are the two new systems being explored by by NASA.
American space agency NASA is planning a faster way of travel to Mars, one that could take astronauts from Earth to the Red planet in just 45 days. In a blog post, NASA gave details about a nuclear propulsion concept that will make this possible. The Nuclear Thermal and Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NTP/NEP) concept is a new class of bimodal nuclear propulsion system that uses a "wave rotor topping cycle," as per a NASA blog post. It added that NTP/NEP will revolutionise the deep space exploration of our solar system.
NASA selected the nuclear propulsion concept as part of its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for 2023.
The agency's blog post has been written by Professor Ryan Gosse, who put forward the concept for travelling at high speed to Mars. He is the Hypersonics Program Area Lead at the University of Florida and a member of the Florida Applied Research in Engineering (FLARE) team.
According to the American space agency, NTP is one technology that can provide high thrust and double the propellant efficiency of chemical rockets, making it a viable option for crewed missions to Mars.
