VASIMIR Rocket Prototype to Fly this January

Space - 2008

VASIMIR Rocket Prototype to Fly this January

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19427
Scanned by: Marisa Vitols over 5 years ago

This coming January, Ad Astra Rocket Company will test the VX-200, a full-scale ground prototype of the variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMIR), first conceived in 1979 by the company's president and CEO, astronaut and plasma physicist Franklin Chang Diaz. The rocket is an attempt to improve on current space-propulsion technologies, and it would use hot plasma, heated by radio waves and controlled by a magnetic field, for propulsion. Chang Diaz believes that the system would allow rockets to travel through space at higher speeds, with greater fuel efficiency. An interview with Diaz follows the summary of his current work.

Type: Prototype | Also: Technology |

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VASIMIR Rocket Prototype to Fly this January

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