The new Russian rocket engine achieves higher acceleration than chemical rockets by using magnetic plasma accelerators, allowing for speeds of up to 100 km/s.

While plasma propulsion isn’t a new concept, the speeds claimed by Rosatom — 100 km/s —are far beyond the capabilities of existing ion thrusters, which typically max out at 30-50 km/s.

*Plasma is one of the four states of matter, where gases are heated to high energies, causing them to separate into charged ions and electrons. Plasma is used not only in space electric propulsion ...