Oct. 20, 2004 — A team of University of Washington researchers believes it has found a way to cut roundtrip travel time between Earth and Mars by 95 percent, giving astronauts a much higher chance of pulling off a successful mission while minimizing their exposure to dangerous radiation.

"If it's going to take 2 1/2 years (to travel back and forth to Mars), the chances of a successful mission are pretty low," said project head Robert Winglee, a professor of Earth and space sciences at the Seattle-based university.

Taking a cue from the sun, Winglee has come up with a plan to beam magnetic particles, much like how solar wind particles stream from the sun, onto a spacecraft equipped with a magnetic sail. The craft would be pushed along as the particles repel from the sail.

Winglee envisions setting up beam generator on a space station that would send streams of magnetized ions toward the spacecraft's sail. The vehicle's speed would increase with the size of the plasma beam. For example, a beam generated by a 32-meter (105-foot) diameter nozzle would blast a spacecraft more than 26,000 mph or 625,000 miles per day.

Mars and Earth average about 48 million miles apart, though the distance at any one time can vary greatly, depending on where the planets are in their respective orbits around the sun. Winglee figures a spacecraft traveling on magnetic beams would take about 76 days for a one-way journey, but he's working on plans to shave even more time off the voyage.

Quicker travel times, however, would require a plasma station near the destination point to generate a force for braking.

The technology, called magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or mag-beam, was among the projects under discussion this week at NASA's Institute of Advanced Concepts symposium in Seattle. The space agency this month gave Winglee's team a $75,000, six-month study contract, with the possibility of a two-year, $400,000 extension.

Winglee touts mag-beam technology as a way to open the solar system for exploration. With plasma generators placed around the solar system, spacecraft could sail from point to point, quickly and cleanly. A test mission could be ready to fly within five years, depending on funding.

"This would facilitate a permanent human presence in space," Winglee said. "That's what we are trying to get to."

Much work remains before mag-beam technology becomes practical, said Louis Friedman, executive director of the Pasadena, Calif.-based Planterary Society, which is preparing to launch a solar sail craft early next year.

The spacecraft taps the steady flow of solar wind particles beating against its sail to move.

"We didn't look at mag-beam for our mission. It's interesting, but it's an idea that is not very mature," said Friedman.