Two American companies have joined forces to create an electric motor powered by a nuclear reactor. While it currently takes more than a year to fly to Mars and back, a new nuclear electric engine could make the trip in just a couple of months or more. Two American companies have partnered to develop a powerful nuclear engine based on existing technology that will make space travel much faster, Phys reports. Ad Astra and SpaceNukes have announced a partnership that will enable rapid manned and unmanned missions to Mars and the far reaches of the solar system. The two companies said they have begun work on a new nuclear electric propulsion system based on Ad Astra’s VASIMR electric magnetoplasma propulsion system and SpaceNukes’ Kilopower nuclear reactor. Fast flights to Mars and to more distant worlds of the Solar System have long been a dream of the world’s space agencies. But this requires powerful rocket engines. Ad Astra has long been developing its VASIMR electric magnetoplasma engine. But it requires a lot of energy to carry out fast flights into space. Therefore, it was decided to use the Kilopower nuclear reactor from SpaceNukes, which will create this energy. VASIMR stands for VASIMR, a type of electric ion propulsion system. Ion thrusters are the most well-known form of electric propulsion. They are not powerful enough to propel a spacecraft into space, but once in space they are highly efficient and very fast. The problem is that ion engines need a lot of energy to ionize the fuel and get to high speed. This energy can be obtained using huge solar panels or using a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which has been used for many years to power various spacecraft, including Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. But such a generator cannot power very powerful propulsion systems. Therefore, a nuclear reactor is best suited for this purpose. The new nuclear electric motor is expected to have a power of at least 100 kW before testing begins later this decade. The motor’s power will then be increased during development, with a view to introducing a fully-fledged version in the early 2030s. With this engine, it will be possible to reduce the round trip time to Mars, which currently takes more than a year, to a couple of months or a little more. With this nuclear engine, it will be possible to carry out both unmanned and manned missions to Mars. The developers of the nuclear engine believe that it will also help to significantly reduce the flight time to the outer part of the solar system. This will allow for quick access, for example, to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, which have hidden oceans under the surface and may be suitable for life. Nuclear electric engines have numerous advantages over traditional rocket engines. They are much more efficient, using 10-100 times less fuel, and most importantly, they allow for very high speeds during space flight. The post Reaching Mars in Two Months Will Soon Become a Reality appeared first on Anomalien.com.