This engine is of course very
important for working in space in the near future, particularly if Focus Fusion
pulls off their fusion engine. Then we
have the power to operate these engines continuously for years. That means that
the design objective of operating a large craft under one G of acceleration
becomes plausible and the entire solar system is completely open to
exploitation.
The purpose of one G craft is
that it becomes possible to send crews on long missions to the edge of the
solar system and back without endangering them.
Such craft could also easily carry a rotating torus for the crew to
provide internal gravity when the craft is not under acceleration.
Once the energy problem is solved
these problems are mere engineering problems.
The first big step is the creation of good working plasma engines to
drive it all.
NOVEMBER 24, 2010
Ad Astra Rocket Company’s VASIMR® VX-200 rocket prototype demonstrated its highest power efficiency and performance so far in tests, which ended Friday November 19 at the company’s
At 200 kilowatts of power the plasma rocket delivers 5.7
Many of the flight applications at the heart of our business model –
orbital debris removal, satellite servicing, cargo flights to the Moon and
Mars, and ejecting fast probes to the outer solar system – have required that
the propulsion system achieve 60% system efficiency at 50 km/s exhaust
velocity. The DC electrical power coming from a solar or nuclear power source
has to be converted to radiofrequency (RF) power, which is then absorbed by the
plasma. The fraction of the RF power that is converted to thrust is called the
“thruster efficiency”. Now we have demonstrated in the lab the 70% thruster
efficiency we need to achieve the 60% end-to-end system efficiency, at the
required exhaust speed.
Short for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, VASIMR® is a high-power plasma-based space propulsion technology being developed by Ad Astra that could provide far more efficient inspace transport than today’s chemical rockets. The company envisions an initial space test of the technology in late 2014, followed by commercial deployment shortly thereafter to greatly reduce the operational costs of maintaining an evolving space infrastructure, including space stations, satellites, lunar outposts and fuel depots in the Earth-Moon environment. Ultimately, VASIMR® engines could also greatly shorten robotic and human transit times for missions to Mars and beyond.
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