Future space vehicles: Visions of Spaceflight in the 21st Century
For future human travelers to sail affordably and routinely across the Solar System in a reasonable amount of time, the power of rockets or other kinds of propulsion systems must be doubled or quadrupled.

Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama have an Advanced Space Transportation Program that is conducting propulsion research designed to find revolutionary ways of "packaging energy" that will improve dramatically every aspect of spaceflight – from launch to rapid travel across the Solar System and beyond.

NASA wants:

Bold new missions in space
Routine economical access to space
Reduced trip times throughout the Solar System and beyond
Routine human missions throughout the Solar System

What does NASA have on the drawing board? Transports might be driven by antimatter, fusion, electrodynamics, tethers, chemicals, space sails, lasers or other energy beams. Below are some of the concepts, as depicted by NASA artists, of what future vehicles might look like:

Antimatter propulsion [click to enlarge]		Boussard Ramjet fusion propulsion [click to enlarge]		Electrodynamic tether [click to enlarge]
Jovian electrodynamic tether [click to enlarge]		Laser propulsion [click to enlarge]		Beamed energy propulsion [click to enlarge]
Pulsed detonation rocket engine [click to enlarge]		Propulsive Small Expendable Deployer System (ProSEDS) [click to enlarge]		Space-based laser reboost [click to enlarge]
Source: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Advanced Space Transportation Program
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Learn more about space travel:

Marshall Space Flight Center    NASA MSFC
Space Transportation    NASA MSFC
Advanced Space Transportation    NASA MSFC
In Space Transportation    NASA MSFC
Revolutionary Propulsion Research    NASA MSFC
Hypersonics    NASA MSFC
Starship 2040    NASA MSFC
NASA headquarters    NASA
History of Space Travel    NASA
International Space Station    NASA
Russian Aviation and Space Agency    ROSAVIAKOSMOS
China National Space Administration    China
European Space Agency    ESA
National Space Development Agency of Japan    NASDA
Rocketry and Space Flight    Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum
How Spaceflight Works    How Stuff Works