Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com - @BednarChuck A rocket capable of sending astronauts to Mars in just six weeks rather than six months sounds impossible, but that’s exactly what one Texas company is working on – and they just received a NASA grant to continue working on the advanced propulsion technology. The rocket is being built by the Ad Astra Rocket Company, and according to the Huffington Post it uses plasma and magnets to propel spacecraft that are already in orbit over greater distance and at higher speeds than is currently possible. In ideal conditions, it could reach Mars in 39 days. Developing a plasma-based propulsion system The technology is known as the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASMIR), and according to Ad Astra, it operates using the electrically-charged gas known as plasma, which can be heated to extreme temperatures by radio waves and guided using strong magnetic fields.
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