Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Being more efficient and more powerful than chemical rockets, plasma engines are seen as the future of human spaceflight. While NASA-backed plasma rocket projects aim for travel times to Mars be just 45 days to two months, a new Russian plasma rocket boasts a one-month one-way trip. Today, when timed with Mars’ closest approach to the Earth, chemical rockets take 8 months (on average) to arrive at the Red Planet. Related Story Can a Retired Rocket Engine Take Us to Mars? Russia’s plasma engine ambitions may be another entry in a long list of high-tech vaporware, but the promise of this new chapter of human spaceflight is anything but.