To Mars and back - in just tank fill of fuel

Graphical illustration of how an ion thruster works by hurling particles backwards so that a spacecraft can be propelled forwards

A Ph D student at University of Sydney Australia has come up with an idea that may revolutionise space travel - specially man's quest to travel to distant planets like Mars.

Paddy Neumann has created a new type of ion space drive that could take humans to Mars and back on a single tank of fuel and believes his ion space drive Nasa's shatters current fuel efficiency record. 

The Neumann ion drive works by bombarding the fuel source with electric arcs, which causes ions be discarded. 

The innovative part of Neumann's drive is the type of fuel that was used. While HiPEP system runs on xenon gas, Neumann's ion drive can instead run on various metals many of which can be found in space junk.

Via | Source

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Posted in: Innovation, Ion Drive, Mars, News, Research, Science, Space, Technology