This technology is very important so long as we desire an impulse Drive. Way more important we will have a space drive able to operate without the burden of large fuel supplies and to do so continuously.
This actually puts the entire solar system in easy reach from a low Earth orbit space station. The reason for this is that a craft underway will fire continuously to the point of turnover and then fire continuously until the point of orbit matching at the destination.
All this means is that our craft will achieve appreciable fractions of light speed.
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PRESS RELEASE 080917, AUGUST 9, 2017
AD ASTRA ROCKET COMPANY SUCCESSFULLY
COMPLETES ALL NASA NEXTSTEP CONTRACT
MILESTONES FOR YEAR TWO, RECEIVES NASA
APPROVAL TO PROCEED WITH YEAR THREE.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/08/plasma-rocket-on-track-to-100-hour-firing-at-100-kilowatts-in-2018.html
[Webster, Texas – for immediate release] – Ad
Astra Rocket Company has successfully
completed all contract milestones and
deliverables for the second of its three-year Next
Space Technology Exploration Partnerships
(NextSTEP) contract with NASA.
The 9 milliondollar,
fixed-price contract remains on schedule
and on budget. After a successful year-two
performance review at NASA Headquarters in
Washington D.C. on July 24, 2017 and
completion of a 10-hour cumulative test of the
200SSTM rocket at 100kW, Ad Astra received
NASA approval to proceed with year-three
activities.
The goal of the project is to demonstrate a 100-
hour continuous firing of the company’s VX-
200SSTM VASIMR® prototype, at a power level of
100 kW.
The company marches towards this goal
on schedule, along a path of interim milestones.
These focus on the rocket’s new active thermal
management system, designed to enable it to
operate at full power indefinitely.
This year’s major accomplishments include the
demonstration of the rocket’s new thermal
management system and major modifications to
Ad Astra’s Texas 150 m3 vacuum chamber and
laboratory infrastructure. These are needed to
handle the unprecedented thermal load from the
rocket’s 3 million-degree plasma exhaust.
These
modifications were validated in a series of rocket
firings that began in early July. The final year-two
milestone of 10 hours of accumulated rocket
operation at 100 kW was successfully completed
on August 1, 2017.
The team now moves to year-three with high
power plasma campaigns of increasing length,
with periods of hardware inspection and
opportunities to implement system improvements
based on lessons learned.
Year three will
culminate in the late summer of 2018 with the
100-hr continuous test of the VX-200SSTM at 100
kW. Ad Astra expects that this test will bring the
VASIMR® engine to a technology readiness level
(TRL) of 5, a step just before space flight.
Some comments from Ad Astra’s team members,
directly involved in the recent 10-hr high power
test, capture the excitement of the moment. "I
was excited to see the combination of each team
member's individual effort produce such an
awesome system. In just a few days, with VX-
200SS, we were able to do what took years to do
with the old VX-200 experiment. It just kept going
and going," said Aidan Corrigan, Research
Engineer in charge of facilities and cooling
systems.
Matt Giambusso a Research Scientist
in charge of command and control said
"Achieving this goal further demonstrates the
viability of the VASIMR® technology and the
determination of the Ad Astra team. I am honored
to be a part of this continuing work."
Since 2005, Ad Astra invested more than $30
million in private funds to mature the VASIMR®
engine.
The NextSTEP program, through a
competitive process, brings NASA and the US
Government as a funding partner going forward
with no investor dilution. The VASIMR® rocket
could support commercial space logistics
transport operations in the Earth-Moon
environment, as well as NASA’s long-term deep
space exploration goals.
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
Short for Variable Specific Impulse
Magnetoplasma Rocket, VASIMR® works with
plasma, an electrically charged gas that can be
heated to extreme temperatures and controlled
and guided by strong magnetic fields, which also
provide insulation. Plasma rockets, such as
VASIMR®, have an extremely low fuel
consumption and much higher performance as
compared with conventional chemical propulsion
or other electric rockets. They will provide a
major economic and operational advantage for
US leadership in space commerce, including
satellite deployment, re-boost services,
refurbishment and end-of-life disposal.
In the
longer term, with an appropriate nuclear-electric
power source, VASIMR® would provide much
Ad Astra Rocket Company
141 West Bay Area Blvd.
Webster, TX 77598
USA: 281-526-0500
Costa Rica: 506-2666-9272
European Office: 0049-6192-902591, Frankfurt
www.adastrarocket.com
2
faster and safer human and robotic transportation
in deep-space where solar power is insufficient.
ABOUT AD ASTRA
A US Delaware corporation established in 2005,
Ad Astra Rocket Company is the developer of the
VASIMR® engine, an advanced plasma
propulsion system for the emerging in-space
transportation market. Ad Astra also owns and
operates supporting R&D subsidiaries in the US
and Costa Rica. The company also develops
earthbound high technology applications in
renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and
applied physics. Ad Astra has its main laboratory
and corporate headquarters at 141 W. Bay Area
Boulevard in Webster, Texas, USA, about three
miles from the NASA Johnson Space Center.
