---
title: "A Former NASA Astronaut Is Building a Plasma-Powered Mars Rocket"
description: "Ad Astra CEO and former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz is building a plasma rocket engine that he thinks is our best bet to send people to Mars."
date: "2019-12-16"
modified: "2019-12-16"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/former-nasa-astronaut-building-mars-rocket"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "ad astra"
  - "mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# A Former NASA Astronaut Is Building a Plasma-Powered Mars Rocket

![Ad Astra CEO and former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz is building a plasma rocket engine that he thinks is our best bet to send people to Mars.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/former-nasa-astronaut-building-mars-rocket.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA\</em\>*

## Mars Race

Space agencies are locked in a hotly-contested race to send a crew to Mars, [with NASA](<https://futurism.com/its-official-humans-are-going-to-mars-nasa-has-unveiled-their-mission>) and [SpaceX](<https://futurism.com/spacex-starship-mars-landing-site>) both working on vehicles to reach the Red Planet.

But it may be a third group, Ad Astra — no relation to the [Brad Pitt movie ](<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2935510/>)— that pulls ahead, thanks to the plasma rocket technology it's working on, [according to *CBC*](<https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/dec-14-saving-the-ozone-helped-climate-change-extra-solar-comet-great-auk-extinction-and-more-1.5391393/nasa-spacex-or-a-former-astronaut-who-will-build-the-rocket-that-takes-us-to-mars-1.5391396>). If it pans out, the plasma engine would enable a larger crew to reach Mars in a third of the time it would take a conventional rocket, utterly changing the landscape of space travel.

## "Paradigm Shift"

Ad Astra CEO Franklin Chang Diaz, who flew on the space shuttle seven times during his NASA days, said that he expects his company's plasma engine to mark a "paradigm shift in transportation in space," according to *CBC*. He also called typical, chemical fuel-powered rockets — the kind NASA and SpaceX use — "primitive."

Famous Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield agrees that something new will be necessary if people are going to [make the arduous trip](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/mars-radiation-mouse-brains>) to Mars. Though he wasn't speaking specifically about Ad Astra, he told *CBC* that he doesn't "think we're going to Mars until... we go from propellers to jets, or whatever that equivalent will be, from rockets to something else."

## Minimal Exposure

A plasma rocket doesn't burn fuel like a combustion engine. Rather, *CBC* reports that it uses electric fields to heat gases millions of degrees hotter than a traditional engine can.

That extra boost lets astronauts travel two to three times faster. Because that means less exposure to [deadly cosmic radiation](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-radiation-mars-mission-deadly>) along the way, the trip suddenly becomes a whole lot more feasible.

**READ MORE:** [NASA, SpaceX or a former astronaut: Who will build the rocket that takes us to Mars?](<https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/dec-14-saving-the-ozone-helped-climate-change-extra-solar-comet-great-auk-extinction-and-more-1.5391393/nasa-spacex-or-a-former-astronaut-who-will-build-the-rocket-that-takes-us-to-mars-1.5391396>) \[*CBC*\]

**More on Mars:** *[Apollo Astronaut: It Would Be “Stupid” to Send People to Mars](<https://futurism.com/apollo-astronaut-stupid-people-mars>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)