Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

SPACE.com -- New Rocket Engine Could Reach Mars in 40 Days

Now thats what Im talkin about.

Sure it has enough thrust to get you to Mars with the quickness BUT the G forces caused by the braking thrust when approaching Mars would suck.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

Awesome sauce. Now they just need to pack 40 days worth of food into it, shouldn't be too hard if we limit them to one twinky and 2 bottles of water a week.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

I've read about VASMIR before.

Maybe they can get this plan going quicker if they can cut the power requirements down. It would ramp up trip time, but also feasibility.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

its better then packing (what was it, 6 months it said?) of food.

But this is a break through. at this rate we'll be able to make the jump to light speed.

Though I'm not good with the physics, how would you stop a ship going that fast?

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

Turn it around mid-course and fire the engines.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

So power is that problem here? It's a really cool thing, but it doesn't seem like we'll have it anytime soon because of the power problem.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

Obama will never approve.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

Here's a good animation of what a trip to Mars might look like using a spacecraft powered by 3 VASMIR engines.



EDIT 2: I think some chemical rockets should be added to this design in order to allow the spacecraft to make some movements that require short but strong bursts of thrusts, but you only put enough fuel for it on the spacecraft to make it useful for weight issues of course.

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

LOL !
With hydrolic disc brakes obviously !

Re: Trip to Mars in 40 days
 

The article says that the power source is the choke point. None exists powerful enough to meet the needs of the ship. Hopefully that will continue to improve.