VASIMR Plasma Rocket Powers Up

Less than a day after my LAST blog entry, where I predicted that Plasma Rockets will become the predominant space propulsion technology later in the century, comes news that an experimental plasma rocket engine has just passed a significant milestone.

For full details go HERE for the original article from PHYSORG.COM. For the basics of how VASIMR and other types of plasma rockets work, go HERE.

Here's hoping the Ad`Astra Rocket Company continues to do such exemplary research and devlopment. I do think plasma rockets hold a tremendous amount of promise, and the sooner the technology is fully developed, the better off our future in space will be.

(Image Copyright Ad Astra Rocket Company)

Coke Bottle Plasma Rocket

Mini Helicon Plasma Thruster

Researchers at MIT have produced an advanced miniature plasma thruster, using the same principles as the VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) plasma rocket that NASA has been developing for deep-space applications a number of years now. The mini helicon notably uses nitrogen, instead of hydrogen that VASIMR uses, and the neon and xenon of other ionic thrusters currently in use.

The most interesting part of this research is that students built a thruster out of an old glass coke bottle and an aluminum can, to prove just how simple and hardy the system is. A short video is in the link above, complete with the characteristic sky-blu glow of the nitrogen exhaust.