Scientist eyes 39-day voyage to Mars

Hey ATS,

A journey from Earth to Mars could in the future take just 39 days -- cutting current travel time nearly six times -- according to a rocket scientist who has the ear of the US space agency. Franklin Chang-Diaz, a former astronaut and a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says reaching the Red Planet could be dramatically quicker using his high-tech VASIMR rocket, now on track for liftoff after decades of development.

Link



Good news, since NASA has cuts in funding more private companies are getting involved in the space exploration business. Mr. Chang-Diaz and his company, Ad Astra Rocket, have new prospects in space travel with the "Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket", in short "VASIMR". Promising technology indeed!

39 days to Mars? Now that would be a start!



[edit on 26-2-2010 by Clairaudience]

This guy is not in the know, there' technology out there that ll get yea there a lot quicker than 39 days! but that's not for conventional minded Man

And this technology is going to be released as Steven Greer says, in the new era. We're going to insist, and this secrecy and holding on till billions perish trying to keep superiority in the next era, is really going to end.

reply to post by DCDAVECLARKE


Of course there is more sophisticated technology being worked on in secret, but we cannot wait forever for them to make it public, instead we should have more confidence in technology that is "known" and known to work, made by the conventional minded man.


[edit on 26-2-2010 by Clairaudience]

Cool man i know what your saying! but look at all the death's since the late 60tes an all that trial an error that conventional Science has given us? it still takes a lot of trust in more ways than one just to get off the ground! and all the expensive crap that's go's with it! thats all im emphasizing here..

Originally posted by Unity_99
And this technology is going to be released as Steven Greer says, in the new era. We're going to insist, and this secrecy and holding on till billions perish trying to keep superiority in the next era, is really going to end.

When I first learned about Greer some time ago, I thought he might be a breath of fresh air in the subject of disclosure. I have the impression at this point though that he is just another in a long line of scammers out to make a buck. He said some country was going to have disclosure if the U.S. did not do so by a certain time. What happened with that? Then we see this photo he puts out of an "alien" that looks like some wierdzoid Gumby.

I am afraid the technology we have paid for is going to stay hidden for a long time to come.

S & F !

Thank you for posting this.

6 Times faster huh... That's pretty fast !
You would expect NASA already has this kind of technology available.

Their supposed to be a cutting edge organisation. Right ?

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Interesting point, although I must say I never really thought of NASA as a cutting edge organization, at least now it isn't one anymore. I think the military complex is spending a lot more effort and money on space exploration and militarization than any public space agency could dream of.

btw. love your nick, how is the weather in Spain?

[edit on 26-2-2010 by Clairaudience]

Sorry to disappoint all you Star Trekkers but man will never travel to the stars.It is nothing more than a dream and will always be.

They could come up with a working ion drive or whatever but there won't be enough money on earth to build it.

We as a race are destined to stand here on this, mostly water with some dry dirt, rock in space and gaze at the stars at night.

We will never live together as one and with the way things are regressing your children will have it worse than their great grand parents did.

We would rather spend billions of dollars as a race developing weapons to kill each other better and studying how to live forever than how to live in peace and harmony and making every life a quality experience.

Sorry to disappoint you all but it is reality.

Our Grandparents in 3 years built a rocket to take us to the moon and back.We have been trying for 8 and still can't do it.

But then again, we don't have German scientists telling us what to do.

Originally posted by Oneolddude
They could come up with a working ion drive or whatever but there won't be enough money on earth to build it.

Ion propulsion has already been done a number of times by a number of different space agencies.

Our Grandparents in 3 years built a rocket to take us to the moon and back.We have been trying for 8 and still can't do it.

I'm not sure where you're getting the "3 years" from, but the Saturn V took at least 5 years to design and build, if you count from when NASA first announced it's plans to build it in '62 to its maiden flight in '67 (Apollo 4).

It's also hard to compare the Apollo program to the Constellation program. The amount of funding and dedicated resources is completely different between the two programs. The Constellation program gets a small portion of NASA's already small annual budget, which means the development has to be stretched out over a longer period of time.

Originally posted by DCDAVECLARKE
This guy is not in the know, there' technology out there that ll get yea there a lot quicker than 39 days! but that's not for conventional minded Man

Like an alcubierre drive aka warp drive?

I think this guy is saying that there is technology available NOW for those who are interested in space travel. Unfortunately the great comrade obama has declared that money for NASA should be cut.

Originally posted by Oneolddude
Sorry to disappoint all you Star Trekkers but man will never travel to the stars.It is nothing more than a dream and will always be.

Yet it still surprises me every time I see technology from science fiction return in every day life.
[Quote]
They could come up with a working ion drive or whatever but there won't be enough money on earth to build it.
There ! You just presented the solution on a silver platter.

We as a race are destined to stand here on this, mostly water with some dry dirt, rock in space and gaze at the stars at night.

If you think of mankind like just observers. Our destination is death.
I'll say. Grab a beer sit back and relax. Enjoy the rid and hope you will not be the one observed some day.

We will never live together as one and with the way things are regressing your children will have it worse than their great grand parents did.

My grand parents were both in their teens during WWII.
My grandpa's brother served the Dutch army ( Not by choice ) in the futile attempt to hold on to Indonesia as an colonial asset.
Anything reminding them of that time. They go mute and start starring with glassy eyes.

We are deluded and influenced. Our perception of the world is or much better then reality brings us. Do to the influence of mind control.

Or it's much worse and the perception eludes us .
What would it take to experience this behaviour ?

All I know is we are far from it right now.

We would rather spend billions of dollars as a race developing weapons to kill each other better and studying how to live forever than how to live in peace and harmony and making every life a quality experience.

The reason for this is because we like to have as much money as possible to achieve the best quality of life possible.
Remove the tool and you will not fail these goals.
Sorry to disappoint you all but it is reality.

Our Grandparents in 3 years built a rocket to take us to the moon and back.We have been trying for 8 and still can't do it.

Did they really ?

But then again, we don't have German scientists telling us what to do.

Ah... yes I'm a descendant of Germany. Like my Great grandfathers father and his wife were German.

As long as we can still imagine we can evolve.


@ Clairaudience.

The weather ? Like living in a bomshell set to detonate.


[edit on 26/2/10 by Sinter Klaas]