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.
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