Rosatom's new plasma engine could potentially cut Mars travel time to 60 days

Is there an independent, credible source on this?

This is delusional. Even the Orion project [1] was aiming for only a 4-month trip to Mars. As a reminder, the Orion project was a concept of a rocket propelled by nuclear bombs exploding behind a pusher plate that pushed a spaceship. There are no credible alternative propulsion methods that could match or exceed the Orion mission parameters, and be anything close to being technology ready.

To go into a bit more technical details. To get to Mars in 60 days you need to achieve velocities of about 40 km/s. This Rosatom thruster has a thrust of 6 Newtons. And the photos of the engine make it look like it's of the order of one ton. One ton pushed with a force of 6 Newtons accelerates by 6 mm/s every second. It would take 77 days to accelerate to 40 km/s. If you attach a spaceship to the engine, then it would take much longer. For example, if the spaceship is 9 tons and and the engine one ton, it would take 770 days.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...

Wow, amazing. I bet it makes french fries in 3 different ways, too.