This new jet engine uses plasma. Plasma is the fourth state of matter, after solid liquid, and gas. It already exists on the surface of the sun and in lightning, but humans can also create it.

demonstrating thrust comparable to conventional jet engines. Tang’s approach differs from other plasma propulsion systems, such as those used by NASA. For example, NASA’s xenon-based plasma ...

The new plasma rocket engine is poised to accelerate spacecraft to speeds of up to 100 kilometers per second (62 miles per second), reducing travel time to Mars from years to just 30 to 60 days.

When [Jay Bowles] demoed his first-generation ion thruster on Plasma Channel ... more like a miniature jet engine than anything that had come before it. Optimizations would need to be made ...