Mars, Please, and Step On It!

One of the biggest obstacles to sending people to Mars is the time it takes to get there - and back. I don't know about you, but I balk at the idea of spending up to three years in space confined to a ship less roomy than a VW minibus.

But a former shuttle astronaut and current physicist, Franklin Chang-Diaz, has thought up a way to get there faster. At least his Texas-based 'Ad Astra Rocket Company', has. They've come up with a rocket called a Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (or VSIMR, gotta have acronyms).

Their design uses electricity to convert a fuel like hydrogen into a very, very, hot plasma which is then ejected out nozzles, using a magnetic field to direct the flow.

Apparently this rocket can accelerate a Mars-bound vessel up to 35 miles per second (roughly 126,000 mile per hour). This speed allows a ship to reach the red planet in as little as 39 days, even given that half the time in route is needed to turn the ship around and use the engines to decelerate for Mars orbit.

A bit more than a month scrunched up in a tin condo with other humans - and with no way to get away - will still test your manners, but is less likely to lead to deep space homicide.

Cool idea, but let's not get carried away (ahem). Chang-Diaz will be testing his engine for real in 2013, but just a low-power version. Only time (and space?) will tell whether his vision will translate into the intrasystem version of a bullet train.