MILLEDGEVILLE — What a time of ups and downs in space exploration!

It’s Spring again in the northern hemisphere on Mars, and the Phoenix lander emerged slowly from its icy cover. Mission Control tried to re-establish communications with the stationary explorer — without success. Granted, nobody gave the spacecraft a snowball’s chance in a Venus summer for surviving the severe Martian polar winter, but those intrepid machines have a tendency to beat the odds, and they had to at least try.

No reply.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) passed over the Phoenix landing site and took pictures of the craft, and the image was grim: instead of the shiny solar panels there was just a dark smudge in the photograph, indicating that the wing-like circular structures had broken off under the enormous weight of the ice cover. With no other means to generate electricity to “phone home” Phoenix has fallen silent for good. The Mars Odyssey Orbiter also tried to pick up radio signals during its many passes overhead, but to no avail.

Granted, if NASA had wanted the lander to survive the frigid months they would have designed it very differently, but there was simply no need to re-use the craft, since it accomplished all its science objectives during its designated life span.

And so Phoenix will remain in place — a monument to human ingenuity, skill and sense of adventure. Maybe at some point in the future human explorers will visit the site and pay homage to what’s left of the Martian surface lab. And who knows — maybe the grandkids can buy bits of it on eBay later on!

Meanwhile, back here at home, some truly futuristic technology is getting ever closer to making the transition from science fiction to science fact. Tucked away in an unassuming warehouse in Houston, Texas, a new plasma engine is proving that it might indeed be the propulsion system of the future: the plasma rocket VASIMR (short for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket).

You might remember plasma as the fourth state of matter from science class. Conventional rockets use liquid or solid propellants and a chemical reaction which provides the necessary energy output to push a rocket and its cargo into Earth orbit or beyond. As impressive as those rockets are they are incredibly inefficient, as only a small amount of energy is produced in proportion to the weight of the propellant. And all that propellant has to be hauled along, its weight requiring yet more propellant.

A plasma engine uses a minute amount of material and a renewable resource — electrical power — to generate vast amounts of energy. Superheated plasma is expelled from the nozzle at around 110,000 miles per hour, and this speed can push spacecraft at heretofore unimaginable velocities. Imagine a trip to Mars taking 6 weeks instead of 6 months!

As with all new technologies there are a number of kinks to be worked out yet, but the engineers are optimistic. If all goes well a test version of the engine will be hauled up to the ISS in 2014 and then we’ll be treated to some pretty amazing rocket science in action. One of the main movers and shakers of the plasma rocket engine is Franklin Chang-Diaz, a seven-time veteran of the space shuttle. Two of the flights he made were with Charles Bolden who is now the head honcho at NASA. Even though the plasma engine is currently funded by private investors, it sure helps to be best buddies with the man in charge!

We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the plasma engine. It’s not quite warp speed, but it’s a lot better than what we have in space right now!

Watch a video on how this engine works at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhGm3pAjXgM

Beate Czogalla is the associate professor of theater design in the Department of Music and Theater at Georgia College & State University. She has had a lifelong interest in space exploration and has been a solar system ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ NASA for many years. She can be reached at our_space2@yahoo.com