VASIMR: videos

[docm]

1. VASIMR VX-100 firing<br /><br />2. The new vacuum chamber being installed, necessary for the VX-200 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[webtaz99]

I have been thinking for years that someone needs to make a really, really huge vacuum facility for all kinds of space-oriented hardware testing. If I had the cash, I would build it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[wick07]

Really cool! We were discussing in another thread what the future of space propulsion will be. My money is on this. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#3366ff"><strong>_______________________________<em> </em></strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"</em>If you are surrounded by those who constatly agree with you, then you're in an intellectual vacuum.  If you feel like trying to make a difference, you have to BE different.  How can you do that without interacting with those who are different from yourself?"</font></p><p><font color="#0000ff">-  a_lost_packet_</font></p> </div>

 

[Huntster]

You mean a vacuum facility like this one? Given, Ad Astra's facility can handle plasma rocket firings, and I don't know if this big boy can. NASA has at least two large scale vacuum facilities, this one and another. I know that Bigelow shipped their Genesis modules to one of them for vacuum testing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[a_lost_packet_]

OOooh.. VASIMR!<br /><br />Get's me all goose-pimply just thinking about it.. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>

 

[webtaz99]

Like that, but BIGGER. Something you could test habitats, power stations and excavation techniques in, at the same time. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[webtaz99]

Not practical? I assume you mean not economically viable due to high cost. Surely it is technically feasible, and surely if it existed, folks would use it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Huntster]

Well, a good measure of potential use would be to know how often that vacuum chamber I linked to is used. It is quite massive in and of itself. I've not seen any figures myself...S_G, do you have any idea? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[docm]

Variable from 3,000 to 30,000+ seconds.<br /><br />At some point a VASIMR-type device could be improved into a fusion rocket whose exhaust would most definitely be radioactive...but not the current devices. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[hal9891]

Could VASIMR launch payloads from the moon surface? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div style="text-align:center"><font style="color:#808080" color="#999999"><font size="1">"I predict that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them"</font></font><br /></div> </div>

 

[docm]

No, its thrust isn't high enough to lift off any body but an asteroid. Basically it's a space drive only. <br /><br />While its thrust is low - a few to tens of newtons - it's continuous, capable like ion drives of running for months or years at a time instead of the few minutes chemical rockets can provide. By comparison ion drives have only delivered a hundred or so millinewtons. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_specific_impulse_magnetoplasma_rocket<br /><br />The Wiki entry mentions ISPs as high as 30,000 and I have seen higher but I cannot recall where. <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>

 

[keermalec]

Crazyed, it all depends on the actual flying mass of the engine, and also on its thrust, which no-one really knows at this date. I was also looking hard for data on VASIMR to try and extrapolate some performance figures, but nothing exists yet.<br /><br />As a rule, even if the engine is massive, having a high ISP can ensure a high final velocity. But if the thrust is low then it will be a long long journey... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>“An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” John F. Kennedy</em></p> </div>

 

[docm]

NASA's VASIMR tech primer (2002);<br /><br />http://dma.ing.uniroma1.it/users/bruno/Petro.prn.pdf<br /><br />States for a manned Mars mission with a 200MW reactor several days would be spent spiraling away from Earth picking up speed for Mars transfer. Mid-course they turn the ships engines towards Mars to decelerate for Mars orbit insertion. <br /><br />Maximum trip time for the scenarios they list: 53 days; Minimum: 39 days. See page 17.<br /><br />YouTube video of mission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj53rVWK5z0<br /><br />This video presumes less power, so 30 days are spent spiraling and another 60 in Mars transfer. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>