A physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has proposed a new type of rocket engine that can
The motor will use magnetic fields,to make plasma particles shoot out of the rocket, propelling it forward. The particles will be accelerated by magnetic reconnection. This is a phenomenon in which magnetic field lines from different magnetic domains converge and quickly rearrange themselves. The same thing happens on the surface of the Sun, for example. Such processes are also recreated inside tokamaks.
State of the art plasma engines thatuse electric fields to move particles, can only provide low speed. But computer simulations have shown that the application of the physicist's idea will allow reaching speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second. This is 10 times faster than other engines can.