NASA is gearing up for another human moon mission by 2030, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still have their sights set on Mars. Recently the space organization tested their Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine or the RDRE, a prototype that could get astronauts to Mars more efficiently.
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00:00NASA is gearing up for another human moon mission soon, but that doesn't mean they
00:07don't still have their sights set on Mars, and recently the space organization tested
00:11their rotating detonation rocket engine, or the RDRE, a prototype that could get astronauts
00:17to Mars more efficiently.
00:18The rocket engine produced some 5,800 pounds of thrust for 251 seconds, that's up from
00:24just over 4,000 pounds of thrust it produced for only a single minute last year.
00:28They still have more tests in the works before they scale it up to a full-sized rocket, but
00:32before that they eventually want this same engine to produce around 10,000 pounds of
00:37thrust.
00:38They say this is a massive leap over previous generations of rocket technology in terms
00:42of efficiency, meaning it could lead to less fuel used over time, a crucial aspect of sustained
00:47space travel.
00:48Not only will it be cheaper to send astronauts into space, but it will also allow them to
00:52travel greater distances, and since Mars is around 200 times the distance of the Earth
00:56to the Moon, our current record for sending humans, we're going to need all the efficiency
01:00we can get, with NASA saying in a statement, quote, it demonstrates we are closer to making
01:05lightweight propulsion systems that will allow us to send more mass and payload further into
01:10deep space, a crucial component to NASA's Moon to Mars vision.