Mars in a Month - New Ion propulsion can get us there in 30% of the time!

[ultima]

famousringo said:

ultima said:

“It turns electrical power into thrust so that we can use solar energy” to power a spaceship, he said.

WTF??? That doesn't make any sense... They're converting energy into matter?

They use electrical power to superheat argon gas into a plasma, generating a huge amount of thrust for very little reaction mass.

They're not converting energy into matter, they're just converting solar energy into newtons in a process which uses very little matter.

Oh... Thanks, that clears it up.