(Newswire.net — April 14, 2015) — Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket or VASIMR is a name that defines the principle of a new rocket engine that Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Company has started to develop for NASA.
The new rocket ship will use a classic chemical engine to lift-off from Earth’s surface, then fires the new plasma and magnet nuclear power based engine to develop the great speed that may make deep-space travel a reality. However, the current prototype can only maintain thrust for one minute. The scientists from Ad Astra are on a mission to solve that problem.
“It is a rocket like no other rocket that you might have seen in the past. It is a plasma rocket,” Dr. Franklin Chang-Díaz, a former shuttle astronaut and CEO of Ad Astra said in a video describing the rocket. “The VASIMR engine is not used for launching things into space or landing them back but rather it is used for things already there. We call this ‘in-space propulsion.'”
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, sometimes referred to as the Electro-thermal Plasma Thruster or Electro-thermal Magnetoplasma Rocket, uses radio waves to ionize and heat propellant, which generates plasma that is accelerated using magnetic fields to generate thrust.
Ad Astra scientists believe nuclear energy to be “an ideal power source in space,” for a space travel to another planet in solar system, or further. Allegedly, in ideal conditions, the rocket could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just 39 days. Still, the solar powered engines are more suitable for the missions near Earth, scientists say.
The company said in press release the NASA granted a $10 million over three years, for creating a prototype that could operate at high power for a minimum of 100 hours, Russia Today reported. The project is being founded as a part of the space agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships program, and needs to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) greater than 5 on NASA’s 9-level scale.
“We are thrilled by this announcement and proud to be joining forces with NASA in the final steps of the technology maturation,” Chang-Diaz, who took part in seven shuttle missions, said in a news release. “We look forward to a very successful partnership as we jointly advance the technology to flight readiness.”
Ad Astra Rocket Company has a Kickstarter campaign to help bring this project to reality.
Mars becomes particularly interesting destination since NASA’s rover ‘Curiosity’ discovered a water deep beneath the lifeless surface of the red planet.
“Liquid water is a requirement for life as we know it, and a target for Mars exploration missions,” said the report’s author, Javier Martin-Torres of the Spanish Research Council, in a statement. “Conditions near the surface of present-day Mars are hardly favorable for microbial life as we know it, but the possibility for liquid brines on Mars has wider implications for habitability and geological water-related processes.”