Astronomer Finds a Shortcut to Mars

Interesting...but the Gizmodo article is fact-lite and hype-heavy.

Vs. the research paper - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009457652... - is perfectly honest about its proposed trajectories scoring 0 for 3 on "shortcut", "secret", and "ultimate". Their summary of the delta-v requirements:

> A comparison across established propulsion concepts clarifies the technological significance of each mission architecture. The 226-day configuration (56 + 35 + 135 days) lies nearer to the boundary of what advanced nuclear-thermal or high-performance electric propulsion might plausibly achieve in the coming decades. In contrast, the 153-day configuration (33 + 30 + 90 days) demands departure and arrival energies far exceeding the performance envelope of any current or near-term propulsion technology; it is therefore interpreted not as a realizable mission, but as an upper theoretical limit defined by the CA21-anchored geometry.