New Fusion Engine Gets to Mars in 30 Days

The speed of space travel is about to make a huge leap forward--cutting a trip to Mars from an agonizing eight months to as little as 30 days! This is all thanks to a revolutionary nuclear fusion engine being tested right now. In this DNews video, Trace explains how it works and the impact it'll have. Read More: "How Far to Mars?" http://news.discovery.com/space/how-far-to-mars-130409.htm "How far away would Mars be if Earth were this big?" "If the Earth were 100 pixels wide..." http://www.distancetomars.com/ "Mars Oppositions" http://spider.seds.org/spider/Mars/marsopps.html "Mars Oppositions occur when planet Earth, on its inner orbit, passes between the Sun and planet Mars." "How fast can real spacecraft travel?" http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/how-fast-spacecraft-travel "While many fictional spacecraft can achieve the speed of light and beyond, the real spacecraft that exist today still rely on conventional propulsion." "NASA-backed fusion engine could cut Mars trip down to 30 days" http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/10/nasa_fusion_engine_fast_mars_trip/ "NASA, and plenty of private individuals, want to put mankind on Mars." "Researchers developing fusion rocket to slash travel time of Mars missions" http://www.gizmag.com/mars-fusion-drive/26939/ "Traveling through deep space is a hazardous undertaking and choosing the right engine can mean the difference between a fast, successful mission and a slow one with mounting dangers of radiation sickness, equipment failures and personal conflicts." "Mission Design Architecture for the Fusion Driven Rocket" http://msnwllc.com/Papers/FDR_JPC_2012.pdf "The future of manned space exploration and development of space depends critically on the creation of a dramatically more proficient propulsion system for in-space transportation." DNews is a show about the science of everyday life. We post two new videos every day of the week. Watch More http://www.youtube.com/dnewschannel Subscribe http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzWQYUVCpZqtN93H8RR44Qw?sub_confirmation=1 DNews Twitter https://twitter.com/dnews Anthony Carboni Twitter: https://twitter.com/acarboni Laci Green Twitter https://twitter.com/gogreen18 Trace Dominguez Twitter https://twitter.com/trace501 DNews Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DNews DNews Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/106194964544004197170/posts DNews Website http://discoverynews.com/