The technology is revolutionary and so will be the result. VASIMR, a new type of starship engine using plasma to reach unheard of speeds, will take humans to Mars in just 39 days compared to the 270 days it takes with existing engines.
Think of the possibilities for space exploration once this technology is perfected.
VASIMR stands for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket. Also called the Electro-thermal Plasma Thruster or Electro-thermal Magnetoplasma Rocket, VASIMR uses radio waves to ionize and heat propellant that generates plasma accelerated using magnetic fields to create thrust.
Plasma rockets have exhaust velocities far greater those achievable by the chemical engines currently used in rockets. Their fuel consumption is also extremely low.
Plasma is an electrically charged gas that can be heated to extreme temperatures by radio waves and controlled and guided by strong magnetic fields.
To reach Mars in just 39 days on a superfast rocket, VASIMR will need the kind of electrical power that can only be delivered by a nuclear fission reactor. VASIMR is expected to operate in the 50 kilowatt to 300 kilowatt range to do its job of reaching Mars in record time.
By comparison, existing electric propulsion systems used by NASA such as the ion engine on the Dawn spacecraft operates at less than 5 kW.
VASIMR became a candidate to power the first manned Mars mission in the 2030s following the successful test of a prototype in 2013.
Costa Rican-born American scientist and former NASA astronaut Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz developed the VASIMR concept and has been working on its development since 1977. VASIMR is being manufactured by the Ad Astra Rocket Company located in Texas and owned by Chang Diaz.
Over the next three years, NASA will give Ad Astra some $10 million to get the engine ready for spaceflight.
"We are thrilled by this announcement and proud to be joining forces with Nasa in the final steps of the technology maturation," said Dr Chang Diaz. "We look forward to a very successful partnership as we jointly advance the technology to flight readiness".
Ad Astra will have to demonstrate a new VASIMR prototype, the VX-200-SS, which must be able to fire continuously for more than 100 hours. A previous test in 2013 saw a VASIMR prototype complete 10,000 successful high power firings.
Proving VASIMR works for more than 100 hours will be key to it one day being used on a spacecraft.
On December 8, 2008, Ad Astra signed an agreement with NASA to arrange the placement and testing of a flight version of the VASIMR, the VF-200, on the International Space Station (ISS). The test will take place in 2016.
Testing of the engine on the ISS is valuable because the station orbits at a relatively low altitude and experiences fairly high levels of atmospheric drag, making periodic boosts of altitude necessary. Currently, altitude reboosting by chemical rockets fulfills this requirement.
The VASIMR test on the ISS may lead to a capability of maintaining the ISS or a similar space station in a stable orbit at 1/20th of the $210 million per year present estimated cost.
The VF-200 flight-rated thruster consists of two 100 kW VASIMR units with opposite magnetic dipoles so that no net rotational torque is applied to the ISS when the thruster magnets are firing. The VF-200-1 is the first flight unit and will be tested in space attached to the ISS.