Ad Astra Rocket Company Unleashes Plasma Power

Rocket science that is revolutionizing in-space propulsion with profound implications for space exploration, orbital debris disposal, and new energy applications is transpiring in Webster. For nearly four years, Webster has been home to one of the world’s most innovative aerospace firms—Ad Astra Rocket Company. Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz, inventor of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®), founded Ad Astra Rocket Company in 2005, after serving for more than 25 years as a NASA astronaut. Chang Diaz, as a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, holds the record for the most spaceflights and credits his years as an astronaut to inspiring his concepts for transforming space transportation and exploration. 

Chang Diaz who graduated with a PhD in plasma physics from MIT in 1977, along with a brilliant team of physicists, including Dr. Jared Squire, Dr. Tim Glover, and Dr. Mark Carter, has recently completed a year and a half of arduous testing of Ad Astra’s VX-200 (VASIMR® experimental engine) to demonstrate that this prototype is the most efficient and powerful electric thruster in operation today.

The company, Ad Astra, which is Latin for “to the stars” was founded to develop, test, and commercialize the technology of the VASIMR® engine, a plasma propulsion system that is much more fuel efficient and faster than traditional chemical rockets. Lengthy journeys to the planets and stars require a new technology that relies on the power of plasma accelerated by electric and magnetic fields. Whereas today’s chemical rockets utilize extensive amounts of propellant that constitute most of the ship’s mass to produce short bursts of thrust, the VASIMR®, with its plasma exhaust, is much hotter, consumes propellant more frugally, and provides constant power throttling or continuous thrust to enable journeys to more distant destinations, quicker flights, and larger payload capacities.

The VASIMR® propulsion system powered by just 200 megawatts of electrical power could result in a ship’s reaching Mars in 39 days, rather than eight months with a chemical rocket, and significantly reduce the crew’s exposure to weightlessness and deadly space radiation. Many applications are in store for the VASIMR®, including asteroid missions, orbital debris disposal, the Catapult, and Project Aurora.

http://www.adastrarocket.com