1. VASIMR: The Future of Space Travel (?) Kevin Blondino 8 October 2012

2. What is VASIMR? VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket – electric propulsion system using accelerated plasma with a magnetic field. Uses radio waves to ionize and further heat Argon (or Xenon, or Hydrogen) Low thrust-to-weight ratio Developed by Ad Astra Rocket Company

3. Possible Uses Deep space travel/robotic missions (not for leaving Earth’s orbit) Lunar cargo transport from low-Earth orbit Drag compensation for space stations In-space refueling Satellite maintenance, refueling, and repositioning

4. Who is this?

5. History Development started 1977 in his Ph.D. with magnetic mirrors First experiment in 1983 at MIT Moved to Houston in 1995 Ad Astra Rocket Company incorporated and partnership with NASA in 2005 Subsidiary in Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica in 2006 Testing of VF-200 will occur on the ISS in 2015

6. Design

7. to ~6000 K

8. Current and Past Models VX-10: 10 kW thruster tested in 1998 VX-25: 25 kW in 2002 VX-50: 50 kW also in 2002 VX-100: 100 kW in 2007 VX-200: 200 kW single-thruster VF-200: 2 100 kW thrusters with opposing magnetic field.

9. VX-200 Operating at full power with argon propellant at about 50 km/s exhaust velocity.

10. Sense of Scale

11. VF-200 Conceptual mock-up Two 100 kW thrusters with opposing magnetic fields. This makes a zero-torque magnetic quadrapole in order to not interact with the Earth’s magnetic field.

12. A 2MW solar powered lunar tug concept using 4 VASIMR engines.

13. Pros Much lower fuel consumption and cost Higher efficiency than chemical propulsion No use of electrodes Almost no moving parts Very durable, and thus reusable Highly scalable

14. Cons Requires superconducting magnets (low temperature)  This requires low temperature cooling  Such a strong magnetic field could interfere with other equipment, and could cause torque (single thruster design). Large power requirement  i.e. lots of waste heat that must be directed away  External source may be needed Solar for near-Earth missions Nuclear

15. [1] http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/VASIMR [2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/plasma-rockets.html [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Chang_Díaz [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VASIMR [5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4jf2F3YEAI References