In the titanic scientific and technological race to colonize Mars, there are many challenges we face. One of the greatest, along the journey, especially for resupply the settlers in a short time.
For the moment, it takes about seven months to arrive to the Red Planet, but an idea recently proposed by a team at McGill University, and published in the journal Astronautical Act, could reduce that time to just 45 days.
How do they plan to do it?
researchers propose a form of propulsion called “thermal laser propulsion”: The laser – a system that uses a 10-meter-wide array of lasers on Earth – would heat hydrogen plasma in a chamber behind the spacecraft, producing thrust from the hydrogen gas and sending it to Mars in a very short time calculated 45 days, according to a news release from McGill University.
The researchers detail in their article that, if this is achieved, the ship would not need any chemical fuel on board to brake, just like a traditional spaceship would. The supply ship could thus use the thin atmosphere of Mars to slow down through a maneuver called “airbrake”.
“The laser thermal propulsion enables one-ton fast transport missions with volleyball court-sized laser arrays,” said Emmanuel Duplay, lead author of a paper and an alumnus of the Engineering Summer Research Program at McGill University.
Minimize exposure of astronauts to the damaging effects of cosmic rays
The team created the concept after NASA launched an engineering challenge to design a method of reaching Mars that could carry a 1,000-kilogram payload in no more than 45 days.
The short delivery time is motivated by the desire to carry loads and, one day, astronauts to Mars while minimizing their exposure to the damaging effects of galactic cosmic rays and solar storms.
As the scientists explain, it is likely that the first humans to reach Mars will not do so with laser thermal propulsion technology. However, as more humans make the journey to maintain a long-term colony, “we will need propulsion systems to get us there fasterif only to avoid the dangers of radiation,” says Duplay.
A laser-thermal mission to Mars could, according to the statement, be launched 10 years after the first human missions, in other words, it was the year 2040.
In the titanic scientific and technological race to colonize Mars, there are many challenges we face. One of the greatest, along the journey, especially for resupply the settlers in a short time.
For the moment, it takes about seven months to arrive to the Red Planet, but an idea recently proposed by a team at McGill University, and published in the journal Astronautical Act, could reduce that time to just 45 days.
How do they plan to do it?
researchers propose a form of propulsion called “thermal laser propulsion”: The laser – a system that uses a 10-meter-wide array of lasers on Earth – would heat hydrogen plasma in a chamber behind the spacecraft, producing thrust from the hydrogen gas and sending it to Mars in a very short time calculated 45 days, according to a news release from McGill University.
The researchers detail in their article that, if this is achieved, the ship would not need any chemical fuel on board to brake, just like a traditional spaceship would. The supply ship could thus use the thin atmosphere of Mars to slow down through a maneuver called “airbrake”.
“The laser thermal propulsion enables one-ton fast transport missions with volleyball court-sized laser arrays,” said Emmanuel Duplay, lead author of a paper and an alumnus of the Engineering Summer Research Program at McGill University.
Minimize exposure of astronauts to the damaging effects of cosmic rays
The team created the concept after NASA launched an engineering challenge to design a method of reaching Mars that could carry a 1,000-kilogram payload in no more than 45 days.
The short delivery time is motivated by the desire to carry loads and, one day, astronauts to Mars while minimizing their exposure to the damaging effects of galactic cosmic rays and solar storms.
As the scientists explain, it is likely that the first humans to reach Mars will not do so with laser thermal propulsion technology. However, as more humans make the journey to maintain a long-term colony, “we will need propulsion systems to get us there fasterif only to avoid the dangers of radiation,” says Duplay.
A laser-thermal mission to Mars could, according to the statement, be launched 10 years after the first human missions, in other words, it was the year 2040.
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