06/29/2026
Russia says it's building a plasma engine that could one day cut the journey to Mars to just 30 days.
The engine is being developed by scientists connected to Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, at the Troitsk Institute near Moscow. Instead of burning chemical fuel like a traditional rocket, the system would ionize hydrogen into plasma and accelerate those charged particles using magnetic fields.
That matters because chemical rockets are powerful, but inefficient for long-distance travel. A typical trip to Mars can take around six to nine months, depending on planetary alignment and mission design.
Plasma propulsion works differently. It produces lower thrust than a launch rocket, but it can fire for much longer, slowly building up speed over time. That makes it especially attractive for deep-space missions.
Rosatom says its laboratory prototype can accelerate plasma to about 62 miles per second (100 km/s), with a power output of 300 kilowatts. The company has claimed the technology could eventually shorten a one-way trip to Mars to about 30 to 60 days.
That would be a major breakthrough.
Shorter Mars journeys could reduce astronauts’ exposure to space radiation, cut the amount of food and supplies needed, and make human missions less physically punishing.
But there is a big caveat: this is still a prototype.
A working plasma engine for a crewed Mars spacecraft would need enormous power, long-duration reliability, thermal control, and testing far beyond a laboratory device. Russia has said it hopes to have a flight-ready version by 2030, but that timeline is ambitious.
Other space agencies and companies are also pursuing advanced plasma and electric propulsion. NASA has backed concepts such as the Pulsed Plasma Rocket, which has been proposed for crewed Mars missions in about two months, while Ad Astra’s VASIMR engine is being developed as a high-power plasma propulsion system.
Learn more:
“Russia Is Building a Plasma Engine to Get Humans to Mars in 30 Days.” Popular Mechanics.
