NASA - AdAstra sign new VASIMR agreement

[docm]

http://technology.jsc.nasa.gov/<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Ad Astra Rocket Company and NASA sign second collaborative agreement relating to the VASIMRâ„¢ engine.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />http://technology.jsc.nasa.gov/docs/AdAstraPressRelease101207.pdf<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

Good to know VASIMR is only in a coma and has not yet died. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[holmec]

Oh, good. This is one to watch. Do they plan an ground test in 2008? <br /><br />I wonder if anyone cares to cleanup the wikipage for vasimr <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

I'm not sure what their plans are. I pretty much lost touch with VASIMR over a year ago. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[docm]

Not really in a coma. They recently installed a rather large vacuum chamber so they can start testing the VX-200 (200 kW) model in 2008. <br /><br />Graphic link....<br /><br />Video of installation....<br /><br />From a Cedar Wings interview with Chang-Diaz;<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><font color="orange"><b>Q:</b> What is the expected preliminary<br />timeline for the completion, use, or<br />adoption of plasma rocket propulsion<br />technology?</font><br /><br /><b>A:</b> We are on a fast track to complete the<br />first flight-like VASIMRâ„¢ prototype, the<br />VX-200 by early 2008. This device will be<br />in all ways identical to the flight engine<br />but will not fly. We plan to complete the<br />characterization of this prototype by mid<br />2008 and begin the design of the VF-200-1<br />and the VF-200-2, the first flight engines,<br />which will be ready for flight in late 2010<br />and 2011 respectively. By 2012 we expect<br />to have both engines operating in space in<br />two different venues. By the middle of the<br />next decade we plan to fly more powerful<br />engines in a lunar cargo vehicle, which<br />is presently in our drawing boards. This<br />vehicle could enable economically<br />sustainable re-supply services to the Moon<br />colonies and also be used to access space<br />resources such as water and metals on<br />comets and near Earth asteroids. By the<br />end of the next decade, Ad Astra plans to<br />begin construction of a lunar rocket test<br />facility that will enable us to fully test<br />the very powerful VASIMRâ„¢ rockets<br />needed for missions to Mars and beyond.<br />These rockets require a vacuum and a<br />suitable facility large enough is not<br />practical to build on Earth. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[holmec]

Sweet!<br /><br />Anyone know what kind of performance is expected out of this thing? As compared to ion thrusters and chemical rockets? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[grdja]

Have I gone dyslexic or does it really say "lunar rocket test facility"? How can anyone ever take them seriously after reading that?

 

[gunsandrockets]

<Have I gone dyslexic or does it really say "lunar rocket test facility"? How can anyone ever take them seriously after reading that?><br /><br />Yep. There seems to be more hype than hope when it comes to VASIMR. I was stunned by the following sentences... <br /><br />"By the middle of the <br />next decade we plan to fly more powerful <br />engines in a lunar cargo vehicle, which <br />is presently in our drawing boards. This <br />vehicle could enable economically <br />sustainable re-supply services to the Moon <br />colonies and also be used to access space <br />resources such as water and metals on <br />comets and near Earth asteroids. By the <br />end of the next decade, Ad Astra plans to <br />begin construction of a lunar rocket test <br />facility that will enable us to fully test <br />the very powerful VASIMRâ„¢ rockets <br />needed for missions to Mars and beyond." <br />

 

[docm]

Testing larger engines on the moon makes perfect sense if NASA wants to go to Mars using the VASIMR profile they themselves developed. <br /><br />When you see those pics from NASA or AdAstra showing a huge gadget what you're actually looking at is the vacuum chamber it's being tested in. A full sized VASIMR device wouldn't be that large, 3 meters at most. Earthly vacuum chambers would have to be enormous, but the surface of the Moon is one huge vacuum chamber. <br /><br />The main question is if the LSAM cargo bay could handle its weight, and if so getting a VASIMR to the moon shouldn't be an issue. Getting enough electrical power to test at full power is another matter, but solvable. <br /><br />As for cargo to the moon; if time isn't a factor then yes...you could use VASIMR by spiraling it out from NEO to lunar space. Not too different than the Mars insertion orbit in the NASA VASIMR strategy. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

I mentioned coma because all too often, there is encouraging news in the world of truly breakthrough technology that ends up in a coma before the breakthroughs benefits can be realized. They all meet the cost barrier.<br /><br />NASP/X-30...promised to achieve SSTO performance just before being reduced to a technology research effort. This effort only now showing some signs of emerging from a long coma like process for lack of a better term, but doing so many years after it was to have been operational.<br /><br />VASIMR was moving quite well up until 2001 or so when it appeared to just drop off the face of the earth. IIRC, a VASIMR system was to have flown by now according to projections made around 2000. Hopefully, Ad Astra will put VASIMR back on course and out of the comatose state it seemed to be in until recently. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[docm]

It fell off the radar because of the usual NASA problem; lack of funding. Chang-Diaz took it private, got funding and has been working hard to get 2 facilities up and running and get that large vacuum chamber ready. Things really started to pay off with the >4 hour test fire of VX-100 last June. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

Exactly...VASIMR under NASA, slammed into the cost barrier. One of its biggest plusses is that it has a dedicated leader in Chang Diaz and a dedicated team. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[shuttle_guy]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Exactly...VASIMR under NASA, slammed into the cost barrier. One of its biggest plusses is that it has a dedicated leader in Chang Diaz and a dedicated team. <br />Posted by qso1</DIV></p><p>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/28/vasimr_plasma_first_stage_test/es</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[shuttle_guy]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/28/vasimr_plasma_first_stage_test/es&nbsp; <br />Posted by shuttle_guy</DIV></p><p>The Ad Astra news release:</p><p>http://www.adastrarocket.com/Release241008.pdf<br /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[shuttle_guy]

<p>http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/dec/HQ_08-332_VASMIR_engine.html</p><div class="space_div"><span class="bold">NASA Administrator Hails Agreement with Ad Astra </span></div><div class="space_div">WASHINGTON -- NASA and Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas, have signed a Space Act Agreement that could lead to the testing of a new plasma-based space propulsion technology on the International Space Station. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine initially was studied by NASA and is being commercially developed by Ad Astra. <br /><br />This is the first such agreement for a payload on the station&rsquo;s exterior and represents an expansion of NASA&rsquo;s plans to operate the U.S. portion of the space station as a national laboratory. This effort follows the success achieved by the agency last year in reaching multiple agreements to utilize internal station sites for this endeavor. <br /><br />"Ad Astra's Space Act Agreement with NASA offers an example of just the kind of research and technology development that we should be doing on the International Space Station, can do there, and cannot easily do anywhere else," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said. "Dr. Chang-Diaz's VASIMR engine concept has long held great theoretical promise for future high-efficiency space propulsion. With this agreement, we are taking the first steps down the road to its practical realization. I am grateful to the teams on both sides who have worked to develop a plan that yields a near-term step forward for both Ad Astra and NASA on this exciting prospect." <br /><br />NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Operations William Gerstenmaier and Ad Astra's President and Chief Executive Officer Franklin Chang Diaz signed the agreement on Dec. 8. The agreement is structured in a series of "gates," designed to allow the parties to assess milestones on an incremental basis while proceeding to flight. Upon the achievement of these milestones, NASA and Ad Astra envision that VASIMR will be launched to the station and be tested, for the first time, in the vacuum of space. <br /><br />The VASIMR project will pave the way in demonstrating a new class of larger, more complex science and technology payloads to be installed on the station's exterior. Smaller projects already have been started for installation inside the station as part of the effort to use the U.S. portion of the station as a national laboratory. NASA hopes the agreement with Ad Astra will encourage other entities, governmental and commercial, to pursue similar projects and to facilitate the success of those projects by providing a model for implementation. <br /><br />Chang-Diaz, a former astronaut and veteran of seven space shuttle flights is a plasma physicist. In 2001, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awarded him the Wyld Propulsion Award for his 21 years of research on the VASIMR engine. <br /><br /></div> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[docm]

Science Channel will cover VASIMR and Chang Diaz tonight on their show "Brink" at 10 PM EST,&nbsp;a 30 minute&nbsp;progran that highlights new techs.&nbsp; Got the DVD recorder all ready to go. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[frodo1008]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Science Channel will cover VASIMR and Chang Diaz tonight on their show "Brink" at 10 PM EST,&nbsp;a 30 minute&nbsp;progran that highlights new techs.&nbsp; Got the DVD recorder all ready to go. <br /> Posted by docm</DIV></p><p>Thanks a lot, I just saw the program, and it was very interesting.&nbsp; To me this is indeed the real hope for a true space faring civilization, this along with such things as mining on the moon is going to allow us to not only go to such destinations as Mars, but get there much faster and with more that one ship to ensure mission success.</p><p>Chang, like Elon Musk and Bigelow, is one of those rare individuals that&nbsp; is actually doing something about truly going into space to accomplish something.</p><p>Not only this but instead of fighting NASA they are making use of the technology that NASA has developed for pure private and commercial interests!&nbsp; And they are doing this while makinghuman space development profitable.&nbsp; And that is a real key to the future!</p><p>There is far more hope for the future, as such individuals actually cooperate with not only NASA but quite possibly the space programs of other countries as well.&nbsp; </p><p>Indeed, Ad Astra!!!! </p>

 

[kevin_space_001]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Science Channel will cover VASIMR and Chang Diaz tonight on their show "Brink" at 10 PM EST,&nbsp;a 30 minute&nbsp;progran that highlights new techs.&nbsp; Got the DVD recorder all ready to go. <br /> Posted by docm</DIV></p><p>When is it on again?? &nbsp;</p>