A mission fueled by a conventional chemical rocket would require at least eight months to reach Mars. Chang-Diaz said plasma could serve as rocket fuel within the decade and that NASA could conduct an orbital test flight as early as 2004. The NASA lab will collaborate with MSE Technology Applications in Butte, Montana, to develop the advanced propulsion technology, according to the agreement announced Tuesday. The Montana team is involved in simulating the effects of plasma propulsion. When a gas is heated to tens of thousands or millions of degrees, atoms lose their electrons.
Plasma occurs commonly in nature.
In fact, most matter in the universe is in the plasma state, including stars, nebulas and, closer to home, lightning and extremely hot flames. No known material can contain the hot plasmas necessary for rocket propulsion, but specially designed magnetic fields can. In the first, a propellant gas, like hydrogen, is injected and ionized. The second use radio waves to heat up the plasma more, sort of like a microwave oven. And the third, a magnetic nozzle, converts the energy into a directed flow.