Plasma thruster could be ticket to Mars

An Australian invention may one day propel a spacecraft to Mars.

A research group at ANU headed by Professor Rod Boswell has identified a way to make a 'plasma thruster' for use in space exploration.

"It's still early days and the thruster is still only a laboratory experiment, but it works," said Prof. Boswell. "It's simpler than any other thruster presently available."

The group uses plasma processing to change the surface of semiconductors and while looking at the basic properties of the plasma, realised the ions were coming out very quickly under certain conditions.

Plasma is a state of matter where high density gas is heated and ionised. This plasma can be placed in a magnetic field that then pushes the plasma out as it expands. This creates a thrusting force in the opposite direction and, in theory, could be used to propel a craft through space.

A plasma thruster would throw material out from the back of the spacecraft, thrusting the craft forward at 10 times the rate of the rockets currently used on Saturn 5 or the space shuttle. This means it would need only a tenth of the amount of propellant and would bring down the overall cost of the mission.

For more information, please visit The ANU Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering