Can we use plasma as rocket fuel?

Question

I recently saw a Daily Planet episode that talked about it. Unfortunately I saw the bit about using plasma as rocket fuel right as it got over.

The question is: is it possible? and will it allow acceleration to very high speeds in space?

The reason I'm interested in this is becuase the Star Trek Enterprise uses plasma. What if they're right?

The scientist woman on daily planet said that using plasma as rocket fuel can help to reach close to the speed of light for space travel. Is this true?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_drive.

Check it out.

Answer 2

Yes, Its Much Faster But It Would Greatly Impact Our Fuel Economy

and we don't look to grand there right now lol  

like i said its not warp speed but its very fas

Answer 3

I don't see how, as plasma is a very hot ionized gas. How would you store it? Once you cool it and compress it to a liquid, it looses all it's energy and is just a compressed gas, which we have already as a rocket fuel.

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Answer 4

Well, space boy- how old do you need to be before you realize that science-fiction is primarily fiction?   Plasma is a state of matter, like solid, liquid and gas.  In some ways plasma IS being used, an extremely hot gas is a plasma, and that is what is being expelled from a rocket.  What really counts is WHAT goes into the plasma, not the plasma itself.  

Answer 5

Yes.  It's called electro magneto plasma dynamic propulsion or simply an ion drive.  A gas like Xenon is heated up so that the particles become ionized and are propelled by a magnetic field.

There is actually a space probe out there right now called Deep Space 1.  

The deal with ion propulsion is it is good in that it cuts down on the mass of the fuel and you can make a little mass of fuel power you over a long distance but it produces very little force and takes a long time to speed up.  so right now it's only good for small unmanned probes that we can send out for a long time.