Ad Astra and NASA Agree to Continue Collaboration on VASIMR Engine

Five-year Agreement Ensures Continued Development of Concept to Boost Orbit of ISS

HOUSTON, Texas -– Ad Astra Rocket Company and the NASA have signed an Umbrella Space Act Agreement to continue the parties’ collaboration in the development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket engine (VASIMR).

The agreement specifies a five-year term and sets out the provisions by which the parties will contribute in-kind know-how and/or resources, with no transfer of funds in either direction, to facilitate the achievement of the partnership’s common and mutually-beneficial goals and objectives. The specific tasks to meet these objectives are defined in separate companion support agreements called Annexes.

The Agreement was executed December 16, 2013 at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) by its Director, Dr. Ellen Ochoa and by Ad Astra’s Chairman and CEO, Franklin R. Chang Díaz.

Annex-1 to the Agreement was concurrently signed on December 16, 2013 on NASA’s behalf by Mr. William S. “Bill” McArthur Jr., NASA-JSC Director of Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) and by Dr. Chang Díaz on Ad Astra’s behalf. The Annex provides the terms and conditions of the parties’ continued collaboration in the development of the safety protocols and documentation, associated with the flight test of the VASIMR system on the International Space Station.

From the Ad Astra Web Site:

Principles of Operation
The primary purpose of the first RF coupler is to convert gas into plasma by ionizing it, or knocking an electron loose from each gas atom. It is known as the helicon section, because its coupler is shaped such that it can ionize gas by launching helical waves. Helicon couplers are a common method of generating plasma. After the helicon section, the gas is now “cold plasma”, even though its temperature is greater than the surface of the Sun (5800 K). The plasma is a mixture of electrons and ions (the atoms they were stripped from). The newly formed electrons and ions carry charge and may then be contained by a magnetic field shielding the rocket core from the plasma. The second coupler is called the Ion Cyclotron Heating (ICH) section. ICH is a technique used in fusion experiments to heat plasma to temperatures on the order of those in the Sun’s core (10 million K). The ICH waves push only on the ions as they orbit around the magnetic field lines resulting in accelerated motion and higher temperature.

Thermal motion of ions around the magnetic field lines is mostly perpendicular to the rocket’s direction of travel and must be converted into directed flow to produce thrust. The rocket uses a magnetic nozzle to convert the ions orbital motion into useful linear momentum resulting in ion speeds on the order of 180,000 km/hr (112,000 mph).

VASIMR® Engine Compared to Other Electric Thrusters
The VASIMR® engine has three important features that distinguish it from other plasma propulsion systems:

The VASIMR® engine has the ability to more widely vary its exhaust parameters (thrust and specific impulse) in order to optimize mission requirements resulting in the lowest trip time with the highest delivered payload for a given fuel load.

The VASIMR® engine uses electromagnetic (RF) waves to create and energize the plasma within its core. In this way, the VASIMR® engine has no physical material electrodes in contact with the hot plasma. The lack of electrodes results in greater reliability, longer life, and enables a much higher power density than competing ion and Hall thruster.

The VASIMR® engine is able to process a large amount of power, meaning that it can then generate a larger amount of thrust. This larger thrust capability promises to make the VASIMR® engine useful for moving large payloads around low Earth orbit, transferring payloads from the Earth to the Moon, and transferring payloads from the Earth to the outer solar system. The VASIMR® technology is also highly scalable, meaning that higher power versions can be easily designed; making human missions powered by electric propulsion a reality

Established in 2005, Ad Astra Rocket Company is the developer of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®) engine, an advanced plasma space propulsion system aimed at the emerging in-space transportation market. Ad Astra also owns and operates Ad Astra Servicios Energéticos y Ambientales (AASEA) and Ad Astra Rocket Company, Costa Rica, respectively supporting research and development subsidiaries in the US and Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Through its subsidiaries, the company also develops earthbound high technology applications in renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and applied physics. Ad Astra has its main laboratory and corporate headquarters at 141 W. Bay Area Boulevard in Webster, Texas, USA, about two miles from the NASA Johnson Space Center.