Testing the world's most powerful plasma engine
The rockets that will use charged particles to move ultrafast flights to Mars now that the reduced size of the prototype has been demonstrated at full capacity, have become one step closer.
The plasma engine that will be used to maintain the orbit of the International Space Station over the next five years can lay the foundation for rockets that one day will carry out missions to Mars for about a month.
Since 2005, the Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas, has been working to improve the type of engine called VASIMR (Variable Pulse Electromagnetic Accelerator).
The engine uses radio waves to heat the Argon and transform it into a hot plasma — a state of matter in which electrons are no longer attached to the atomic nucleus. The magnetic fields then release the superheated plasma from the engine, producing thrust in the opposite direction.
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It fires rocket fuel at a much higher speed than conventional engines, which results in a much greater acceleration per kilogram of fuel used.
In the near future, the company hopes to use the 200-kilowatt VASIMR engine to provide periodic acceleration to maintain the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS), which gradually decreases as a result of atmospheric resistance.
Now the company starts this engine for the first time at full capacity. On Wednesday, she launched a 201 kilowatt VX-200 engine in a vacuum chamber in Houston, for the first time overcoming a two-hundred-kilowatt mark.
“Now it’s the most powerful plasma rocket engine in the world,” says Franklin Chang-Diaz, a former NASA astronaut who now heads the company.
The closest thing that can compete with it is NASA’s 50-kilowatt thrust engine, which is based on the acceleration of electrically charged atoms, or ions, which the intermediary company stopped building in 2005 due to
budget cuts.
Ad Astra signed an agreement with NASA about testing a 200-kilowatt VASIMR on the ISS in 2013. The company is negotiating with two space companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences about the possibility of delivering the engine to the ISS on their launch vehicles.
If the tests are successful, the company hopes to provide regular enhancements to the station’s orbit on a commercial basis starting next year.
In the past, spacecraft — including Russian and European freighters — provided this boost to the orbit by launching the engines at the time they were docked to the space station.
With the help of conventional engines, the process of maintaining an orbit consumes 7.5 tons of rocket fuel each year. VASIMR can do the same job with just 0.3 tons of argon per year, Chang-Diaz says, because fuel is very expensive to change the orbit, it can save millions of dollars every year.
The profits generated by maintaining the orbit of the ISS with the help of the new engine will help the company, “make the technology better and make it possible for people to fly to Mars,” Chang-Diaz told New Scientist magazine.
The 10-20 MW class VASIMR engines can accelerate to as little as 39 days the mission of humans to Mars, says Chang-Diaz, compared with the six months or more that conventional rocket engines require.
A shorter journey will reduce the impact of cosmic radiation on astronauts, which could be a major barrier to the flight of people to Mars, especially considering that in the next decade the level of radiation may be much higher.
Promoting fast missions to Mars in the future can be very profitable for the company, says Chang-Diaz. “But at the moment, profits are not on Mars, they are closer to Earth,” Chang-Diaz jokes.
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I thank superhabra for the help in translation, comments and additions. (you can even put him a plus in karma).
The plasma engine that will be used to maintain the orbit of the International Space Station over the next five years can lay the foundation for rockets that one day will carry out missions to Mars for about a month.
Since 2005, the Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas, has been working to improve the type of engine called VASIMR (Variable Pulse Electromagnetic Accelerator).
The engine uses radio waves to heat the Argon and transform it into a hot plasma — a state of matter in which electrons are no longer attached to the atomic nucleus. The magnetic fields then release the superheated plasma from the engine, producing thrust in the opposite direction.
')
It fires rocket fuel at a much higher speed than conventional engines, which results in a much greater acceleration per kilogram of fuel used.
In the near future, the company hopes to use the 200-kilowatt VASIMR engine to provide periodic acceleration to maintain the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS), which gradually decreases as a result of atmospheric resistance.
Now the company starts this engine for the first time at full capacity. On Wednesday, she launched a 201 kilowatt VX-200 engine in a vacuum chamber in Houston, for the first time overcoming a two-hundred-kilowatt mark.
Deal with NASA
“Now it’s the most powerful plasma rocket engine in the world,” says Franklin Chang-Diaz, a former NASA astronaut who now heads the company.
The closest thing that can compete with it is NASA’s 50-kilowatt thrust engine, which is based on the acceleration of electrically charged atoms, or ions, which the intermediary company stopped building in 2005 due to
budget cuts.
Ad Astra signed an agreement with NASA about testing a 200-kilowatt VASIMR on the ISS in 2013. The company is negotiating with two space companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences about the possibility of delivering the engine to the ISS on their launch vehicles.
If the tests are successful, the company hopes to provide regular enhancements to the station’s orbit on a commercial basis starting next year.
More effective
In the past, spacecraft — including Russian and European freighters — provided this boost to the orbit by launching the engines at the time they were docked to the space station.
With the help of conventional engines, the process of maintaining an orbit consumes 7.5 tons of rocket fuel each year. VASIMR can do the same job with just 0.3 tons of argon per year, Chang-Diaz says, because fuel is very expensive to change the orbit, it can save millions of dollars every year.
The profits generated by maintaining the orbit of the ISS with the help of the new engine will help the company, “make the technology better and make it possible for people to fly to Mars,” Chang-Diaz told New Scientist magazine.
Less radioactive
The 10-20 MW class VASIMR engines can accelerate to as little as 39 days the mission of humans to Mars, says Chang-Diaz, compared with the six months or more that conventional rocket engines require.
A shorter journey will reduce the impact of cosmic radiation on astronauts, which could be a major barrier to the flight of people to Mars, especially considering that in the next decade the level of radiation may be much higher.
Promoting fast missions to Mars in the future can be very profitable for the company, says Chang-Diaz. “But at the moment, profits are not on Mars, they are closer to Earth,” Chang-Diaz jokes.
___
I thank superhabra for the help in translation, comments and additions. (you can even put him a plus in karma).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/71645/
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