VASIMR Rocket Could Send Humans To Mars In Just 39 Days
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHXBe4NneHA
A new type of rocket that could send humans to Mars in less than six weeks instead of six months or longer may be one step closer to reality.
NASA has selected Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Company for a round of funding to help develop the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR. The new rocket uses plasma and magnets, not to lift spacecraft into orbit but to propel them further and faster once they've escaped the planet's atmosphere.
"It is a rocket like no other rocket that you might have seen in the past. It is a plasma rocket," Dr. Franklin Chang-Díaz, a former shuttle astronaut and CEO of Ad Astra said in a video describing the rocket. "The VASIMR engine is not used for launching things into space or landing them back but rather it is used for things already there. We call this 'in-space propulsion.'"
While missions near Earth would be able to use solar energy to power the rocket, a mission to Mars would require something far more powerful -- most likely nuclear power, which the company has called "an ideal power source in space."
In ideal conditions, the rocket could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just 39 days.
So far, a non-nuclear prototype has been able to fire for less than a minute at a time:
The NASA contract, worth about $10 million over three years, would go toward creating a prototype that could operate at high power for a minimum of 100 hours, the company said in a news release.
The project is being funded as part of the space agency's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships program. The goal is for the prototype to reach a technology readiness level (TRL) greater than 5 on NASA's 9-level scale.
A level 5 is described by NASA as:
TRL 5 System/subsystem/component validation in relevant environment: Thorough testing of prototyping in representative environment. Basic technology elements integrated with reasonably realistic supporting elements. Prototyping implementations conform to target environment and interfaces.
"We are thrilled by this announcement and proud to be joining forces with NASA in the final steps of the technology maturation," Chang-Diaz, who took part in seven shuttle missions, said in a news release. "We look forward to a very successful partnership as we jointly advance the technology to flight readiness."
An image provided by the company shows a schematic view of the VASIMR:
(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2804036/thumbs/o-VX-200-570.jpg?7)
Critics have called VASIMR unrealistic, with Mars Society president Robert Zubrin saying last year that to bring humans to Mars, the rocket would need "nuclear electric power systems with 10,000 times the power and 1/100th the mass per unit power as any that have ever been built."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/06/vasimr-rocket-mars_n_7009118.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Quote from: astr0144 on April 07, 2015, 09:40:14 PM
Critics have called VASIMR unrealistic, with Mars Society president Robert Zubrin saying last year that to bring humans to Mars, the rocket would need "nuclear electric power systems with 10,000 times the power and 1/100th the mass per unit power as any that have ever been built."
The "nuclear electric power systems" referred to will be plasma fusion reactors. That is my prediction.
SOAR: Space Orbiting Advanced Fusion Power Reactor. Final report, October 1986-January 1987
Energy Citations Database
Country of Publication United States
Language English
Format Pages: 57
Availability NTIS, PC A04/MF A01.
System Entry Date 2001 May 13
Abstract
The preconceptual design of a Space Orbiting Advanced Fusion Power Reactor (SOAR), which delivers up to 1000 MWe for at least 600 s from an orbited mass of about 500 tonnes, was accomplished.^The power is produced by a magnetically confined D-3He plasma.^Approximately 96% of the fusion energy is in charged particles, and a direct converter has been designed which converts much of this energy into electricity at high net efficiency (about 80%).^An advanced shield design allows SOAR to deliver approximately 2 kilowatts of electricity for every kilogram of material orbited.^The shield is designed to absorb all rejected heat during operation, and no active radiator is required.^The SOAR reactor concept is designed to allow rapid startup and shutdown procedures.^The lack of radioactivity on launch and the low radioactive inventory after operation make the SOAR concept attractive from maintenance, safety and environmental perspectives.^The plasma physics approach extrapolates from the present plasma physics and fusion technology knowledge base using concepts which can be tested on existing or near-term devices.^The symbiosis of burst mode requirements, D-3He tandem mirror fusion reactor characteristics, and the space environment leads to a very high performance design concept.
Subject 220800 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Propulsion Reactors ;700200 -- Fusion Energy-- Fusion Power Plant Technology; SPACE PROPULSION REACTORS-- FEASIBILITY STUDIES;SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES;TMR REACTORS-- SPACECRAFT POWER SUPPLIES; CHARGED PARTICLES;DEUTERIUM;EFFICIENCY;HELIUM;HELIUM 3;LAUNCHING;MAGNETIC MIRRORS;PROGRESS REPORT;PROTONS;RADIOACTIVITY
Related Subject BARYONS;DOCUMENT TYPES;ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT;ELEMENTARY PARTICLES;ELEMENTS;EQUIPMENT;EVEN-ODD NUCLEI;FERMIONS;FLUIDS;GASES;HADRONS;HELIUM ISOTOPES;HYDROGEN ISOTOPES;ISOTOPES;LIGHT NUCLEI;MAGNETIC MIRROR TYPE REACTORS;MOBILE REACTORS;NONMETALS;NUCLEI;NUCLEONS;ODD-ODD NUCLEI;OPEN PLASMA DEVICES;POWER REACTORS;POWER SUPPLIES;PROPULSION REACTORS;RARE GASES;REACTORS;SPACE POWER REACTORS;STABLE ISOTOPES;THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES;THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/studies?rm=SOAR&s=1
http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/5226365
Pegasus Document Release at ATS 2007
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread316514/pg1
Yep, that sort of thing. ;)