New powerful space engine developed

[Crashoran]

http://gizmodo.com/5375581/new-video...gine-in-action

"This plasma engine will cut the need for massive amounts of fuel, taking down the current consumption of 7.5 tons of propellant per year—used in the shuttle and other spaceships—down to 0.3 tons. It will also be extremely fast, cutting down the travel to Mars from six months to just 39 days."


39 days....that's amazing

[Coelus]

So that's a little over 36,000mph assuming the earth and mars orbits are closest to each other. Not exactly warp speed.

[johnastovall]

Something is very wrong with the numbers they give. A shuttle launch just for solid boosters uses 550 tons of fuel and the main tank has 811 tons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Also Plasma engines don't work well in an atmosphere. Fine for use in near vacuum but not for getting to LEO.

Rather a bit a a fluff piece with bad numbers.