Hall thruster that can take Human to Mars

Feb 20, 2016

NASA has funded a spacecraft engine design of spaceflight propulsion system to be built around a tabletop-sized thruster. Also known as X3 thruster that professor Alec Gallimore and his team has been building from quite some time. The thruster is being built and tested with hopes of that it could power humans to Mars in the near future.

The agency selected NextSTEP program as part of its exploration partnerships, which consists a set of projects aimed at improving propulsion, small satellites and human living quarters in space. These are small steps but a longer vision toward sending humans into orbit between Earth and the moon in the 2020’s and to Mars the following decade.

Aerojet Rocketdyne will receive $6.5 million from NASA over the next three years to for the development of the propulsion system. The X3 thruster is central to this system, and the developing team will receive $1 million of the award for work on the thruster. 

The thruster contains three channels, each a few centimeter deep, fixed together in concentric rings. Due to such nesting, the Hall thruster would be able to operate at 200 kw of power in a relatively small area. Aerojet Rocketdyne is planning to build two major components around the X3. If this is successful this thruster would be the basis for sending humans to Mars!

Source:http://phys.org/news/2016-02-hall-thruster-contender-humans-mars.html