Researchers at the University of Washington at Seattle are pursuing a rocket design that would open the Solar System to human exploration within reasonable flight times-- including round trips to Mars in as few as 30 days.
Engineers and science fiction authors have known for decades that the key to interplanetary travel is developing nuclear fusion rockets. The team at UW is working on precisely that, and making progress. The design relies on powerful magnetic fields that would squeeze tiny amounts of fuel into a state where nuclear fusion occurs, producing vast amounts of energy and driving exhaust out of the rocket at extremely high speeds.
The system could allow round trips to Mars in the 30- to 90-day range, which would lessen many of the problems associated with deep space travel.
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