NASA Trials Groundbreaking Liquid-Lithium Engine for Mars Mission
NASA completed high-power tests of a liquid-lithium, magnetoplasmadynamic thruster at up to 120 kilowatts, a major step toward crewed Mars propulsion. Lithium promises higher exhaust velocities and reduced propellant mass versus xenon, but handling molten lithium and corrosion pose severe engineering challenges. Next steps include thousands of hours of endurance testing and scaling toward megawatt-class power (2–4 MW) for long-duration deep-space missions.