I am very happy to see the vidoe after you give this The VX-200 is operating in a 150 cubic meter vacuum chamber, used to simulate the vacuum of space.
I Love The Video It Can Increase My Knowledge This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds, a plateau of full power operation for 5 seconds, and then rocket shut down.
Good, I like that you share this video This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds, I wish success always
Nice Video VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds, a plateau of full power operation for 5 seconds, and then rocket shut down That You Share , So Very Nice Thanks You
Your Video Is Very Useful Sharing This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds
@royalbrainwave Yep - but your big flashlight will never take cut the flight time to Mars down to thirty days! Will be a massive step forward when operational.
You can ballpark thrust at 50lbs to the megawatt, so 200KW is about 10 lbs. Ad Astra has never - that I've seen - given an ISP (which is essentially an efficiency calculation) for the VASIMR.
This is NOT related to NERVA, ROVER, or KIWI nuclear thermal engines. Those engines used liquid hydrogen heated by a system of highly enriched uranium to product thrust in the 1,100 MW range, or about 75,000lbs of thrust. So while the VASIMR is more effecient - by far - the thrust difference is huge.
@GangsterHutterite This is not made for use in an atmosphere. It is to be used in space. If it could work in an atmosphere(I do not know if it can) it would use far to much power.
This is a great propulsion system, but it has a terrible flaw... The nuclear reactors required for this Engine simply does not exist. Youre asking for something like with the strength of steel with the weight of styrofoam..
Power in the Gigawatt range or close to is where we're going to see the first usable ion drive engines. Even at several hundred thousand watts these things just have no oomph, but boy do they get great gas milage!
It's hard to compare the two. VASIMR won't get you off the ground, because it has low thrust. But it's very fuel efficient such that the total acceleration you can get out of it per unit mass of fuel is far greater than conventional rockets.
@paenitet7nullum I think VASIMR can work in the atmosphere, unlike most ion rockets. the problem is that it does not have the thrust to fly in the atmosphere.
@AgrivatedKillah It is more or less pointless if it can work in the atmosphere or not, because it cannot make enough thrust to get into space, and uses far to much power to have any real use in the atmosphere anyway.
Hey, now that we know there is a lot of antimatter in the van allen belts, we can find a way to trap and store it and use it combination with this and get a intersteller rocket! I belive with current rate of tech that would happen around 2080-2200.
I know the feeling. I've read about plasma and ion drives since I was a kid and I still don't get the details. The best I can figure out is that the thrust is minute but it can run for weeks (unlike conventional chemical rockets which run out of fuel after a few minutes at most) and can build up tremendous velocity.
@pinz2022 Building on my last post, it's about accelerating each bit of propellent to *very* high velocity. Newton's 3rd Law. You're floating in space and you toss a bullet ahead of you. You don't get much reactionary thrust in the opposite direction. Now, shoot a bullet from your gun. You get lots more from the same mass of "propellant". That's what "high specific impulse" means. Propellant and fuel (not ship and payload) are by far the most major constituents of mass in a space vessel.
@pinz2022 3rd response, yeah. But the holy grail of spaceflight would be something like a lightweight nuclear power source, combined with a very high specific impulse system like VASIMR. This is all *very* pie in the sky for today. But it is a road we must travel if we're ever going to make interplanetary HSF practical as more than a "one shot". Personally, though, I'm more excited about VASIMR as a way to make deployment of probes to the outer sol system (beyond Mars) not take years and years.
@kroooassant Use the details of things you don't understand as a study guide. Look up the details, and eventually it will be something that you do understand, along with other things that you didn't even know about. The Internet can either be BoobTube 2, or what the dreamers thought TV could be, but never became. I'd suggest Wikipedia as a source for looking up the details. It's generally top quality.
200,000 watts may sound like a lot but it isn't. A 267 HP Car engine can produce the same amount of output if hooked up directly to a generator. If They can get power ranges in the gigawatts then that would be something. This is just the beginning.
WOOWWW!!! Impresionante. Ya solo les falta hacerlo 1000 veces más grande para llegar a los 200 MW!!! Yo estoy haciendo lo mismo: un motor eléctrico de 1/5 de caballo, pero luego lo haré de 200 caballos y moveré un automóvil sin combustibles fósiles y con gran potencia. ¿Que cómo voy a alimentar el motor eléctrico? Simple: celdas solares. O sino con algún reactor nuclear de bolsillo que alguien invente.
@IamDuhmb Yes, and by 2050 surface to orbit will only cost a few tens of dollers a pound to get into space. that means that if a middle class guy wanted to go to space it would be totaly possible if he saved for it for a few years. currently it is 100% impossible for a middle class person to go to space in america even if he got it for free because of space tax.
Plasma rockets are the things that I've been waiting for since I was 11 years old. I'm soon to be 48. I hope this isn't a steam technology. Where steam was known to have power as far back as the greeks, but it took fulton to engineer it?
I think people will be surprised at how fast this type of technology can go from prototype to production. The tough part if getting it up there. Sure could use a space elevator about now,...
How crazy is it that in just a few generations people might be vacationing in orbit around their favorite planet. Yes please.
oo cool studio efects lighting and a smoke machine. SKG would be proud! Now just add a thumping sound track in post production and you have a great special effects sequence.
IMAGINE!! a ship built of habitats from BIGELOWAEROSPACE , the engines from VASIMR and LOCKHEED MARTIN, the structures will be made of advanced nonmetallic composites similiar to DREAMCHASER AND SPACESHIP ONE and launched into space by SPACEX
I am looking at ht tp://upload.wikimedia. org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Vasimr.png if you can find a way to take the Large Hadron Collider model and fuse it with the Vasimr model on a miniaturized scale we would be traveling at 3 metres per second slower than the speed of light. Meaning we would be very fast.
You could make a stronger engine if it went over a farther length so it could accelerate the plasma to high speeds meaning the faster the ship would travel. As it would gain speed you would just increase the magnetic force that pressurizes it to also accelerate it. But if it is all the same and the power can be miniaturized you could make a very long coiling path for it accelerate on until it reaches the highest possible speed and that would be the point of ejection from the engine.
If you use a pebble bed nuke reactor on a spacecraft to power this thing you would easly have enough power to safely run a bunch of these at once and get to mars in 39 days. why the media keeps saying that it would take 3 years round trip to get to mars is beyond me. heck if you build the ship from orbit and it never touches down you could put a couple reactors on it and power a few dozen of these things and PIT thrusters at the same time and travel the solar system within a small timeframe.
@TheLogicisking they say three years because they use they don't use any fuel on the way there, just enough to get out of earth's orbit and then cruise on the way there. Using fuel on the way there would be costly.
Well, we're gonna need the cheap rocketry to get a spacecraft built in space capable of going to Mars. SpaceX might have the solution to that with their 1,000 dollar/lb Falcon heavy rocket.
@TheLogicisking ION ROCKETS SUCK, it takes three years cus the thing need 400 days just to get up ta speed this negine is probly not even putting out 3 lb of thrust, you cant use nuclear reacters in space the way you think you can, disapating heat into a cold vaccum aint so easy , the condensores for the reacters would not be able to cool off fast enough, space is cold but its a vaccum so it cant remove large amounts of heat
@NOBOX7 I am not about to get into an argument over ion thrusters, insteed I am going to say a fact. It may take 3 years or 2 months depending on how much power you put into this thing and how many of these things you have going at once. I wonder if you can fix the heat by having some sort of medium constently absorbing the heat and then exiting the ship into space, would that work?
@TheLogicisking lol, wasnt tryn to argue bro was just telln you what ive extrapalated. reactors would wrk in space if the condensores were 3 square miles in size maybe , im not shure , all i no is that vast amounts of heat cannot be dumped into spaced, i dont no spacifics but if you look it up post a comment on the details, my statements are well within ballpark but it would be nice to review specific values if u find them
@TheLogicisking don't worry, my generation's going to college currently. once we've start working for the government's space development. The views and ideas of a total new century will open up space exploration by 10 folds
I dunno about that. Currently NASA seems to be obsessed with Global Warming and making Muslims feel good about their historic contributions to science. Space exploration appears to have fallen by the wayside.
@TheLogicisking The round trip is mostly because it takes a year or two for Earth and Mars to be in a position where a spacecraft can fly from one to the other without taking forever.
@TheLogicisking maybe with the perfection of cold fusion, nuclear reactors wont be need due to the radioactive waste...which could be simply expelled in to endless abyss of space or course :3
@OMGelectronics As much as I like the idea of things like cold fusion, I realy don't think it is real. however standard fusion makes very little waste. in fact, you would need to extensivly modify a fusion reactor just to get bomb fuel from it. hopefuly we get hot fusion up and running so we don't have any stupid people making studpid nukes from its waste. I hate nukes by the way, but love the prospect of nuke tech for peace. if only people would stop making things to kill people.......
@21mozzie There is if you spin the thing fast enough:). practicly speaking, it would not be too hard to make a space travel safe reactor, even if it isn't pebble bed.
@TheLogicisking That is with conventional engines. Earth and Mars are only every 2 years in a position where transit from one to the other is possible within reasonable time.
@Puzzlaholic good question, i would say that to generate that lousy 2 pounds of thrust it cost 50 cents, but to do what we seen in your garage u would need a 5 million dollar vaccum tank a couple scientist who make 50$ an hour and a huge lab built onto the garage that cost another 5 mill , the rocket probly cost 80,000$ cus they only made 1 and beleave it or not it cost more money to make 1 of something then 10 of them wen its a percision test apperatice
@TheLogicisking I think they achieved 200 Kilowatts of power from one plasma thruster. They say that a ship will us upp to 20 Megawatts worth so a ship would have multipul of these.
@CAESARbonds gravity will easily beat the thruster in power so it probably isnt much use on earth for thrusting . once youre in space, the plasma thuster is far more efficient than any chemical drive. acceleration isnt much of a problem because the top speed is hundreds of thousands of miles an hour as it can run for many years on end.
@computerfreaq17 Yes. In fact, the reason that the tests are so brief is that the propellent quickly overcomes the vacuum pumps and fouls the vacuum. VASIMR is to be tested at the ISS in a few years. ISS requires rather expensive periodic orbital boosts, which are a good test case for VASIMR.
I thought one of the stumbling blocks for VASIMR was the massive magnetic field required for operation that would disrupt the electrical and electronic systems of anything it was attached to.
@pinz2022 This is a problem, but there is a solution. If you put 2 of these in this in this one position(like side to side) the fields will affect each other and lessen the problem.
@pinz2022 You are right(I think). you could go faster quicker, but that would wast a lot of fuel. Of course, I may just be getting VASIMR and Ion drives mixed up.LOL
@pinz2022 VASIMR is about long burns with very high specific impulse. Meaning it requires far less propellant, resulting in a massive reduction in overall mass. Meaning far less fuel, meaning even less mass. Think about jumping off a 10000m tower on the Miranda. After 20 sec you're floating at a leisurely 5.6 km/h (walking speed) admiring the beauty of it all. When you reach the ground, you splat at 150km/hr. Small accelerations add up fast.
@pinz2022 I had to cast about a bit for a body with appropriate gravity to make my point with reasonable numbers. I tried the moon (too high g), Phobos (too irregular), Deimos (too low g) and finally decided to go with Miranda. (1/124th Earth gravity) Appropriate, since in the short story "Into The Miranda Rift" this actually happened. It wasn't a tower, but a very deep crevasse. I think the guy found some way of not going splat. It's been a long time since I read it.
Can anyone tell me -- Aside from a power source (which can be nuclear, and thus long-lasting), is there anything expendable in a VASIMR engine (propellant?) that would limit its range? (Maybe expendable's the wrong word -- I mean something of a limited quantity that gets depleted over time as the engine is running.)
@TroyOi Yes. The argon propellant. Like any rocket, VASIMR operates on the principle of Newton's 3rd law. But by firing out the propellant at extreme velocity, it makes the most of every argon atom. The thrust is minute, but potentially long lasting. It won't lift a probe off the Earth. But in space, it could ever-so-gradually accelerate it to great speed. And, of course, gradually decelerate it so that it doesn't go splat on the surface of Mars.
@sbergman27 Thanks. I thought MAYBE it could rely on something like stray hydrogen atoms in space, but I guess they're too few and far between. It seems that, other than solar sails, the value of which are limited to a certain proximity to stars, there's no getting around the need for some limited supply of propellant. That said, would you know if using stray atoms in space is indeed feasible?
if we're lucky, they'll use this when they go back to the moon in 2020. if they do use this for 2020 it will probably be it's debut voyage because i don't think they would go to mars before the moon trip.
@ishouldplayzelda Why would you want to go to the moon? Putting a man anywhere at our level of technology is essentially nothing but a dick waving contest.
@Feylihn i wouldn't but apparently the chinese do because they're planning on doing it... or was that a rhetorical question? btw i think the only useful reason for going to another planet is for mining, colonization/terraforming or if there was alien life (that's an enormous "what if") but that's not going to happen for a while so for right now it is just a dick waving contest lol
We will also need space rated multi megawatt nuclear reactors with 1kw/kg or better power to mass ratio to take full advantage of this engine. Unfortuanately there are so many idiots who oppose anything nuclear that it's unlikely that the neccessary several billions of dollars recquired for development and testing of such reactors will be allocated in near future.
I am fully confident that with this new type of technology we will easily be able to reach mars in 39 days by the late 2020s or the early 2030s. Anyone else agree with me? I mean technology is rapidly advancing and in the next 20 years this engine will be fully developed.
for travelling to other planets/systems this engine is perfect, but there is one other thing that could help in launching of vessel for this, a magnet/railgun type launching system based on the moon, with this system the vessel could already be moving at high velocity, and then saving precious fuels for return trips!, well just a theory but you never know!
@brentsrx7 didnt say it was instant launch, have it circle a few times, and also, its space the massively low gravity of the moon shouldn't be enough to cause that issue through inertia, the only downside to that launching system, how to stop at the other end or atleast slow down enough!
i thought that only required a minimum velocity? G is acceleration. Operate at safe acceleration out towards the minimum velocity, like a ramjet. (except they start fast, cause we don't pilot ramjets)
with a perfect trip it will be 39 days to be around Mars ;) one day closer than we're thonking , Star Trek technology will be not just "science movies" ^^ hope so
Not sure if this is true or not, but VASIMR, over the course of afew years impulse time, constant, could accelerate to 10% of light speed, or around, 18,000 MPS. Making a trip to a closeby star system possible in decades, that in a normal rocket, would take like 70,000-100,000 years. If so, until we discover ways to warp space time, etc. If humanity wants to leave this Earth, VASIMR is the future.
Err I hope this isn't a dumb question but do you mind explaining to all the dummies like me what this is in a nutshell? I'm no rocket scientists like you are, but this looks hella intresting.
@kittyfallout Short for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, VASIMR® is a new high-power plasma-based space propulsion technology, initially studied by NASA and now being developed privately by Ad Astra. A VASIMR® engine could transport payloads in space far more efficiently and economically than todays chemical rockets.
he he heeeee soon we are gona be the ufo`s that fly round earth like planets he hehe muwahahahahahahahahahaha aaaaahahahahahahahaha aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha sori cant wait for that time to come
Hey, could someone answer this definitively for me? This engine doesn't have a likely application for breaking gravity, right? Is this only practical for moving in space, and not getting to it?
@corvettesolos Yes no good for atmospheric use really. It will take time to accelerate, but as long as you can carry enough fuel, you can achieve very high speeds.
Ad Astra is doing really amazing stuff. This rocket has the potential to open up the solar system for exploration. It can produce exhaust velocities of up to 300 km/s which is nearly 100 times more than possible with chemical rockets. Now if only we could overcome our irrational fear of N word and start to develop lightweight megawatt range nuclear reactors to properly supply this engine with required electrical power.
I'm studying astronautical engineering at college, and this ting has been universally declared, "The Shit," by my colleagues. It is essentially Ion Drive 2.0. It currently uses Argon as its propellant to make a 39 day trip possible using a 200kW nuclear power source (Solar doesn't produce enough juice) but they've been saying lately that its possible for it to use Hydrogen instead, meaning you could refuel almost anywhere in the solar system.
I was thinking more along the lines of refueling at an orbiting station around mars that is a dedicated hydrogen collector and processing plant. But the idea of a Buzzard Ramjet style is good too.
Mars has very little atmospheric hydrogen so that would be a very poor location for such a platform, one of the gas giants would a better choice; they all have atmospheres with high hydrogen concentrations. An orbital platform could be used for processing, but ship dropping into the atmosphere would be better than dropping a line due to greater control.
I am very happy to see the vidoe after you give this The VX-200 is operating in a 150 cubic meter vacuum chamber, used to simulate the vacuum of space.
AntoMelta 6 hours ago
I Love The Video It Can Increase My Knowledge This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds, a plateau of full power operation for 5 seconds, and then rocket shut down.
willamricard 7 hours ago
Steady I Really Like This Video This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 second
imegatrone 9 hours ago
Good, I like that you share this video This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds, I wish success always
Melehete 10 hours ago
Nice Video VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds, a plateau of full power operation for 5 seconds, and then rocket shut down That You Share , So Very Nice Thanks You
NganaJHone 12 hours ago
I Really Like The Video From Your The VX-200 is operating in a 150 cubic meter vacuum chamber, used to simulate the vacuum of space.
Ondelendo 14 hours ago
Your Video Is Very Useful Sharing This video shows the startup of the VASIMR 1st stage over 5 seconds, the increasing power of the second stage over 3 seconds
bundawartini 16 hours ago
a spacecraft with this propulsion take 39 days to mars. i see in history channel.
6wanted9 4 days ago
Anti matter engine, our future to go at 1mill mile per hours :D, go from earth to mars within days instead of months
quangluu96 1 month ago
@quangluu96 That's a long ways off.
AgrivatedKillah 1 month ago
My big flashlight has a beam like that too.
royalbrainwave 2 months ago
@royalbrainwave Yep - but your big flashlight will never take cut the flight time to Mars down to thirty days! Will be a massive step forward when operational.
Realfoxhawk 1 month ago
You can ballpark thrust at 50lbs to the megawatt, so 200KW is about 10 lbs. Ad Astra has never - that I've seen - given an ISP (which is essentially an efficiency calculation) for the VASIMR.
This is NOT related to NERVA, ROVER, or KIWI nuclear thermal engines. Those engines used liquid hydrogen heated by a system of highly enriched uranium to product thrust in the 1,100 MW range, or about 75,000lbs of thrust. So while the VASIMR is more effecient - by far - the thrust difference is huge.
UnTiedMusicStudio 2 months ago
Is this related to Projects NERVA and Saturn S-N?
RICKADDSITE 2 months ago
@RICKADDSITE Not exactly. This is an Ion rocket.
TheLogicisking 2 months ago
direct your exhaust better thats got way to much spread NASA!
TheC1c2c3c4c 2 months ago
How much power would this engine need to, say, get a 200'000 pound craft out of the atmosphere? Would something in the ballpark of 1Gigawatt work?
All we need is a compact and light fusion reactor to go with it, and the solar system is ours.
GangsterHutterite 3 months ago
@GangsterHutterite This is not made for use in an atmosphere. It is to be used in space. If it could work in an atmosphere(I do not know if it can) it would use far to much power.
TheLogicisking 2 months ago
They need a flux capacitor if they really want to get things moving.
AgrivatedKillah 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Check out my profile. I have the animated video about Constellation Mission to Mars! :)
energyscience 3 months ago
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This is a great propulsion system, but it has a terrible flaw... The nuclear reactors required for this Engine simply does not exist. Youre asking for something like with the strength of steel with the weight of styrofoam..
serpentphoenix 3 months ago
So it's an Ion Drive engine?
shexdensmore 3 months ago
Power in the Gigawatt range or close to is where we're going to see the first usable ion drive engines. Even at several hundred thousand watts these things just have no oomph, but boy do they get great gas milage!
gymkhanadog 3 months ago
i love space travel technology , but ,, what about starving children ,, we have the technology for that already ,,, guess it's not exciting enough
heettreet 3 months ago
is the VASIMIR rocket really as good as conventional rockets?
Heds123 3 months ago
@Heds123
It's hard to compare the two. VASIMR won't get you off the ground, because it has low thrust. But it's very fuel efficient such that the total acceleration you can get out of it per unit mass of fuel is far greater than conventional rockets.
Boy75402 3 months ago
@Heds123 In space? It's much better.
AgrivatedKillah 3 months ago
i think the noise is partly the vacuum and cooling system
paenitet7nullum 3 months ago
why can't it work in atmosphere? why does it ned to be in vacuum? btw, i know someone who knows someone who owns the company who owns this :D
paenitet7nullum 3 months ago
@paenitet7nullum I think VASIMR can work in the atmosphere, unlike most ion rockets. the problem is that it does not have the thrust to fly in the atmosphere.
TheLogicisking 3 months ago
@TheLogicisking I heard vasimir only works in a vacuum, not sure though.
AgrivatedKillah 3 months ago
@AgrivatedKillah It is more or less pointless if it can work in the atmosphere or not, because it cannot make enough thrust to get into space, and uses far to much power to have any real use in the atmosphere anyway.
TheLogicisking 3 months ago
It sure looks cool and i'm shure it'l perform awesomely in space
...to bad it sounds like a STEAM LOCOMOTIVE!
UncleFester84 3 months ago
@UncleFester84 the good thing about space is that there is no Sound :)
oxxadamxxo 2 months ago
Why it sounds like MRI?
DiMoS650501 4 months ago
Hey, now that we know there is a lot of antimatter in the van allen belts, we can find a way to trap and store it and use it combination with this and get a intersteller rocket! I belive with current rate of tech that would happen around 2080-2200.
TheLogicisking 5 months ago
@TheLogicisking
There's not a lot of antimatter in the van Allen belts. Only a few anti-protons were detected. It's far too little to be usable.
Boy75402 4 months ago
@TheLogicisking I agree with this.
By that time we'll definitely have a much faster fuel and more efficient fuel by then.
AgrivatedKillah 3 months ago
Like in Star Wars!
UnboundLegend 5 months ago
@UnboundLegend That's what I thought too!
Xytan4 5 months ago
2 Words
Thorium Reactor, Most abundant nuclear material on Earth, And is on the Moon and Mars. untapped and ready to use.
ThatAdelaideGuy 5 months ago
Sick! the sooner us humans leave earth the better
Rihn000 6 months ago
It just looks like a blue torch, but at the same time I have that feeling not to stick my hand in the light...
wendtb 6 months ago
I think I read that they were supposed to test this on the international space station this year. Anyone know if they have yet?
whatisfloyd 6 months ago
Don't be fooled. This is just light through a window. :-)
ml191172 6 months ago
@ml191172 I agree,but I think there is a smoke machine involved too at some point.
cutlass3501 6 months ago
i love to watch things i don't understand, makes me feel smart..
kroooassant 6 months ago
@kroooassant
I know the feeling. I've read about plasma and ion drives since I was a kid and I still don't get the details. The best I can figure out is that the thrust is minute but it can run for weeks (unlike conventional chemical rockets which run out of fuel after a few minutes at most) and can build up tremendous velocity.
pinz2022 6 months ago
@pinz2022 Building on my last post, it's about accelerating each bit of propellent to *very* high velocity. Newton's 3rd Law. You're floating in space and you toss a bullet ahead of you. You don't get much reactionary thrust in the opposite direction. Now, shoot a bullet from your gun. You get lots more from the same mass of "propellant". That's what "high specific impulse" means. Propellant and fuel (not ship and payload) are by far the most major constituents of mass in a space vessel.
sbergman27 6 months ago
@pinz2022 3rd response, yeah. But the holy grail of spaceflight would be something like a lightweight nuclear power source, combined with a very high specific impulse system like VASIMR. This is all *very* pie in the sky for today. But it is a road we must travel if we're ever going to make interplanetary HSF practical as more than a "one shot". Personally, though, I'm more excited about VASIMR as a way to make deployment of probes to the outer sol system (beyond Mars) not take years and years.
sbergman27 6 months ago
@kroooassant ahaha, yes.me too
hayden50 6 months ago
@kroooassant Use the details of things you don't understand as a study guide. Look up the details, and eventually it will be something that you do understand, along with other things that you didn't even know about. The Internet can either be BoobTube 2, or what the dreamers thought TV could be, but never became. I'd suggest Wikipedia as a source for looking up the details. It's generally top quality.
sbergman27 6 months ago
But will it blend ?
VioletMauve 7 months ago
200,000 watts may sound like a lot but it isn't. A 267 HP Car engine can produce the same amount of output if hooked up directly to a generator. If They can get power ranges in the gigawatts then that would be something. This is just the beginning.
PsionNinja 7 months ago
WOOWWW!!! Impresionante. Ya solo les falta hacerlo 1000 veces más grande para llegar a los 200 MW!!! Yo estoy haciendo lo mismo: un motor eléctrico de 1/5 de caballo, pero luego lo haré de 200 caballos y moveré un automóvil sin combustibles fósiles y con gran potencia. ¿Que cómo voy a alimentar el motor eléctrico? Simple: celdas solares. O sino con algún reactor nuclear de bolsillo que alguien invente.
avargasm 7 months ago
i think my renult is more powerfull than that,it looks like a broken light bulb..
GE24Tony 8 months ago
@GE24Tony Your Renault doesn't have a specific impulse as good as this though...
eggroll9000 7 months ago
@eggroll9000
i guess you're right but...my renault sounds better ^_^
GE24Tony 7 months ago
i dont get it lol looks like light :S
MasterOfHybr1dz 8 months ago
I imagine when i will be seeing this rocket lift off around 2030...
MadeInLat1 8 months ago
pretty soon trips to the moon will be field trips for elementary school students.
IamDuhmb 8 months ago
@IamDuhmb Yes, and by 2050 surface to orbit will only cost a few tens of dollers a pound to get into space. that means that if a middle class guy wanted to go to space it would be totaly possible if he saved for it for a few years. currently it is 100% impossible for a middle class person to go to space in america even if he got it for free because of space tax.
TheLogicisking 8 months ago
Plasma rockets are the things that I've been waiting for since I was 11 years old. I'm soon to be 48. I hope this isn't a steam technology. Where steam was known to have power as far back as the greeks, but it took fulton to engineer it?
granddad2002 8 months ago
I think people will be surprised at how fast this type of technology can go from prototype to production. The tough part if getting it up there. Sure could use a space elevator about now,...
How crazy is it that in just a few generations people might be vacationing in orbit around their favorite planet. Yes please.
analubalitious 8 months ago
oo cool studio efects lighting and a smoke machine. SKG would be proud! Now just add a thumping sound track in post production and you have a great special effects sequence.
lakewood85 8 months ago
IMAGINE!! a ship built of habitats from BIGELOWAEROSPACE , the engines from VASIMR and LOCKHEED MARTIN, the structures will be made of advanced nonmetallic composites similiar to DREAMCHASER AND SPACESHIP ONE and launched into space by SPACEX
serpentphoenix 9 months ago
I am looking at ht tp://upload.wikimedia. org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Vasimr.png if you can find a way to take the Large Hadron Collider model and fuse it with the Vasimr model on a miniaturized scale we would be traveling at 3 metres per second slower than the speed of light. Meaning we would be very fast.
STATEPUFF125 9 months ago
You could make a stronger engine if it went over a farther length so it could accelerate the plasma to high speeds meaning the faster the ship would travel. As it would gain speed you would just increase the magnetic force that pressurizes it to also accelerate it. But if it is all the same and the power can be miniaturized you could make a very long coiling path for it accelerate on until it reaches the highest possible speed and that would be the point of ejection from the engine.
STATEPUFF125 9 months ago
If you use a pebble bed nuke reactor on a spacecraft to power this thing you would easly have enough power to safely run a bunch of these at once and get to mars in 39 days. why the media keeps saying that it would take 3 years round trip to get to mars is beyond me. heck if you build the ship from orbit and it never touches down you could put a couple reactors on it and power a few dozen of these things and PIT thrusters at the same time and travel the solar system within a small timeframe.
TheLogicisking 10 months ago 45
@TheLogicisking they say three years because they use they don't use any fuel on the way there, just enough to get out of earth's orbit and then cruise on the way there. Using fuel on the way there would be costly.
bluxwid 10 months ago
@bluxwid The cost of medical care for being in freefall and exposed to radiation for 3 years would be a lot too.
TheLogicisking 10 months ago
@TheLogicisking
Well, we're gonna need the cheap rocketry to get a spacecraft built in space capable of going to Mars. SpaceX might have the solution to that with their 1,000 dollar/lb Falcon heavy rocket.
hellomate639 9 months ago
@TheLogicisking ION ROCKETS SUCK, it takes three years cus the thing need 400 days just to get up ta speed this negine is probly not even putting out 3 lb of thrust, you cant use nuclear reacters in space the way you think you can, disapating heat into a cold vaccum aint so easy , the condensores for the reacters would not be able to cool off fast enough, space is cold but its a vaccum so it cant remove large amounts of heat
NOBOX7 9 months ago
@NOBOX7 I am not about to get into an argument over ion thrusters, insteed I am going to say a fact. It may take 3 years or 2 months depending on how much power you put into this thing and how many of these things you have going at once. I wonder if you can fix the heat by having some sort of medium constently absorbing the heat and then exiting the ship into space, would that work?
TheLogicisking 9 months ago
@TheLogicisking lol, wasnt tryn to argue bro was just telln you what ive extrapalated. reactors would wrk in space if the condensores were 3 square miles in size maybe , im not shure , all i no is that vast amounts of heat cannot be dumped into spaced, i dont no spacifics but if you look it up post a comment on the details, my statements are well within ballpark but it would be nice to review specific values if u find them
NOBOX7 9 months ago
@NOBOX7 Ah good. I never like arguing.
TheLogicisking 9 months ago
@NOBOX7 heat doesn't dissipate well into space because there is no medium to take it away
Jam13ez 9 months ago
@Jam13ez Yes that is true, but it is my idea to bring the medium with you. too bad that would be too expensive.
TheLogicisking 8 months ago
@TheLogicisking don't worry, my generation's going to college currently. once we've start working for the government's space development. The views and ideas of a total new century will open up space exploration by 10 folds
MrViciousway 8 months ago
@MrViciousway
I dunno about that. Currently NASA seems to be obsessed with Global Warming and making Muslims feel good about their historic contributions to science. Space exploration appears to have fallen by the wayside.
pinz2022 7 months ago
@TheLogicisking the reportors are basing the engines off the ones we use on the shuttles not the vasmir plasmas
deadlus16 6 months ago
@TheLogicisking The round trip is mostly because it takes a year or two for Earth and Mars to be in a position where a spacecraft can fly from one to the other without taking forever.
Helge129 6 months ago
@TheLogicisking Imagine how it could do once we get past nuclear power...
HeadSHOT604 6 months ago
@TheLogicisking maybe with the perfection of cold fusion, nuclear reactors wont be need due to the radioactive waste...which could be simply expelled in to endless abyss of space or course :3
OMGelectronics 5 months ago
@OMGelectronics As much as I like the idea of things like cold fusion, I realy don't think it is real. however standard fusion makes very little waste. in fact, you would need to extensivly modify a fusion reactor just to get bomb fuel from it. hopefuly we get hot fusion up and running so we don't have any stupid people making studpid nukes from its waste. I hate nukes by the way, but love the prospect of nuke tech for peace. if only people would stop making things to kill people.......
TheLogicisking 5 months ago
@TheLogicisking pebble bed reactors rely on gravity to pull the pebbles down, but there is no gravity in space.
21mozzie 5 months ago
@21mozzie There is if you spin the thing fast enough:). practicly speaking, it would not be too hard to make a space travel safe reactor, even if it isn't pebble bed.
TheLogicisking 5 months ago
@TheLogicisking That is with conventional engines. Earth and Mars are only every 2 years in a position where transit from one to the other is possible within reasonable time.
Helge129 5 months ago
@TheLogicisking Lets Go!
LTL220 5 months ago
@TheLogicisking of course there is surplus of oxygen for PBR in outer space ;)
dimomit 3 months ago
how do you keep that thing from flying away, haha.
FroDude2005 11 months ago
I wonder how much these 25 seconds cost them...
Puzzlaholic 11 months ago 3
@Puzzlaholic good question, i would say that to generate that lousy 2 pounds of thrust it cost 50 cents, but to do what we seen in your garage u would need a 5 million dollar vaccum tank a couple scientist who make 50$ an hour and a huge lab built onto the garage that cost another 5 mill , the rocket probly cost 80,000$ cus they only made 1 and beleave it or not it cost more money to make 1 of something then 10 of them wen its a percision test apperatice
NOBOX7 9 months ago
our first real spaceship engine ;)
Zhengyis 11 months ago 62
Logic states that this is the spacecraft engine of the future. I wonder how fast 9 of these and 10 PIT thrusters would go on a single craft?
TheLogicisking 11 months ago
@TheLogicisking I think they achieved 200 Kilowatts of power from one plasma thruster. They say that a ship will us upp to 20 Megawatts worth so a ship would have multipul of these.
NANOFORGE 11 months ago
This open system is obsolete see approachconcepts com
johnroach1 11 months ago
Can you please define: Full power?
kartingzz1 1 year ago
stupid question: would that work on earth? or only in space?
CAESARbonds 1 year ago
@CAESARbonds gravity will easily beat the thruster in power so it probably isnt much use on earth for thrusting . once youre in space, the plasma thuster is far more efficient than any chemical drive. acceleration isnt much of a problem because the top speed is hundreds of thousands of miles an hour as it can run for many years on end.
ConnorXV 11 months ago 3
@ConnorXV
Thanks for the info.
CAESARbonds 11 months ago
@CAESARbonds They are designed for use in a vaccum. Ships will still use chemical fuel but alot less than a shuttle would use.
NANOFORGE 11 months ago 2
wha would happen if you put a person or an animal into this chamber?
pR05t0 1 year ago
@pR05t0 You'd just burn.
Feylihn 1 year ago
thats a big flashlight, where wud i get the batteries to that?
datdudesux 1 year ago
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3 people will not be allowed to go to Mars
mrsmarts5000 1 year ago
thats chuck norrises Lighter
Erykex 1 year ago
SCIENCE!!!
TacticalToast619 1 year ago
It's sooo quiet, but then again, this must be in a vacuum atmosphere. I heard these things don't really work on earth, only in space.
computerfreaq17 1 year ago
@computerfreaq17 Yes. In fact, the reason that the tests are so brief is that the propellent quickly overcomes the vacuum pumps and fouls the vacuum. VASIMR is to be tested at the ISS in a few years. ISS requires rather expensive periodic orbital boosts, which are a good test case for VASIMR.
sbergman27 1 year ago
@sbergman27
I thought one of the stumbling blocks for VASIMR was the massive magnetic field required for operation that would disrupt the electrical and electronic systems of anything it was attached to.
pinz2022 7 months ago
@pinz2022 This is a problem, but there is a solution. If you put 2 of these in this in this one position(like side to side) the fields will affect each other and lessen the problem.
TheLogicisking 6 months ago
@sbergman27
Correct me if I'm wrong but a good "burn" for one of these would require it being lit for several days to get a vehicle moving?
pinz2022 7 months ago
@pinz2022 You are right(I think). you could go faster quicker, but that would wast a lot of fuel. Of course, I may just be getting VASIMR and Ion drives mixed up.LOL
TheLogicisking 6 months ago
@pinz2022 VASIMR is about long burns with very high specific impulse. Meaning it requires far less propellant, resulting in a massive reduction in overall mass. Meaning far less fuel, meaning even less mass. Think about jumping off a 10000m tower on the Miranda. After 20 sec you're floating at a leisurely 5.6 km/h (walking speed) admiring the beauty of it all. When you reach the ground, you splat at 150km/hr. Small accelerations add up fast.
sbergman27 6 months ago 2
@sbergman27
Uranus' smallest moon? I knew it was good for something.
pinz2022 6 months ago
@pinz2022 I had to cast about a bit for a body with appropriate gravity to make my point with reasonable numbers. I tried the moon (too high g), Phobos (too irregular), Deimos (too low g) and finally decided to go with Miranda. (1/124th Earth gravity) Appropriate, since in the short story "Into The Miranda Rift" this actually happened. It wasn't a tower, but a very deep crevasse. I think the guy found some way of not going splat. It's been a long time since I read it.
sbergman27 6 months ago
Can anyone tell me -- Aside from a power source (which can be nuclear, and thus long-lasting), is there anything expendable in a VASIMR engine (propellant?) that would limit its range? (Maybe expendable's the wrong word -- I mean something of a limited quantity that gets depleted over time as the engine is running.)
TroyOi 1 year ago
@TroyOi Yes. The argon propellant. Like any rocket, VASIMR operates on the principle of Newton's 3rd law. But by firing out the propellant at extreme velocity, it makes the most of every argon atom. The thrust is minute, but potentially long lasting. It won't lift a probe off the Earth. But in space, it could ever-so-gradually accelerate it to great speed. And, of course, gradually decelerate it so that it doesn't go splat on the surface of Mars.
sbergman27 1 year ago
@sbergman27 Thanks. I thought MAYBE it could rely on something like stray hydrogen atoms in space, but I guess they're too few and far between. It seems that, other than solar sails, the value of which are limited to a certain proximity to stars, there's no getting around the need for some limited supply of propellant. That said, would you know if using stray atoms in space is indeed feasible?
TroyOi 1 year ago
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@TroyOi Sure. A Bussard ramjet:
tinyurl . com / d4d2sw
(Remove the spaces.)
But don't expect such a thing any time soon. Just imagine the engineering challenges. And it's got to reach a certain speed before it works.
sbergman27 1 year ago
if we're lucky, they'll use this when they go back to the moon in 2020. if they do use this for 2020 it will probably be it's debut voyage because i don't think they would go to mars before the moon trip.
ishouldplayzelda 1 year ago
@ishouldplayzelda Buzz already been there :)
Darko2625 1 year ago
@ishouldplayzelda Why would you want to go to the moon? Putting a man anywhere at our level of technology is essentially nothing but a dick waving contest.
Feylihn 1 year ago
@Feylihn i wouldn't but apparently the chinese do because they're planning on doing it... or was that a rhetorical question? btw i think the only useful reason for going to another planet is for mining, colonization/terraforming or if there was alien life (that's an enormous "what if") but that's not going to happen for a while so for right now it is just a dick waving contest lol
ishouldplayzelda 1 year ago
great stuff, so what does this all mean in terms of top speed?
mikldude 1 year ago
@mikldude rocket speed dude. rocket speed.
bumqui 1 year ago
We will also need space rated multi megawatt nuclear reactors with 1kw/kg or better power to mass ratio to take full advantage of this engine. Unfortuanately there are so many idiots who oppose anything nuclear that it's unlikely that the neccessary several billions of dollars recquired for development and testing of such reactors will be allocated in near future.
SkyyCaptainn 1 year ago
is this torch portable?
rad0radish 1 year ago
I am fully confident that with this new type of technology we will easily be able to reach mars in 39 days by the late 2020s or the early 2030s. Anyone else agree with me? I mean technology is rapidly advancing and in the next 20 years this engine will be fully developed.
Barnarded 1 year ago
It sounds a bit like techno music. Listen if you don't believe me.
davidt2468 1 year ago
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It's a bit like techno music. Listen if you don't believe me.
davidt2468 1 year ago
for travelling to other planets/systems this engine is perfect, but there is one other thing that could help in launching of vessel for this, a magnet/railgun type launching system based on the moon, with this system the vessel could already be moving at high velocity, and then saving precious fuels for return trips!, well just a theory but you never know!
TheDh0ffryn 1 year ago
@TheDh0ffryn Except rapid acceleration like that might make your organs go splat. not very good for you.
brentsrx7 1 year ago
@brentsrx7 didnt say it was instant launch, have it circle a few times, and also, its space the massively low gravity of the moon shouldn't be enough to cause that issue through inertia, the only downside to that launching system, how to stop at the other end or atleast slow down enough!
TheDh0ffryn 1 year ago
@TheDh0ffryn
You mean Bussard's ramjet?
Yeah, it's a nice idea, too bad the G force is to immense for human beings to handle.
RazorsharpLT 1 year ago
@RazorsharpLT
i thought that only required a minimum velocity? G is acceleration. Operate at safe acceleration out towards the minimum velocity, like a ramjet. (except they start fast, cause we don't pilot ramjets)
Pizack3 1 year ago
@Pizack3 simply statted, without explaining everything (english is not my strong part) let's state this:
If you want a ramjet to propell something that has a living organism (human being preffered) we need it to be IMMENSIVELY long.
RazorsharpLT 1 year ago
with a perfect trip it will be 39 days to be around Mars ;) one day closer than we're thonking , Star Trek technology will be not just "science movies" ^^ hope so
thedarknesspanther 1 year ago
with a perfect trip it will be 39 days to be around Mars ;)
thedarknesspanther 1 year ago
Not sure if this is true or not, but VASIMR, over the course of afew years impulse time, constant, could accelerate to 10% of light speed, or around, 18,000 MPS. Making a trip to a closeby star system possible in decades, that in a normal rocket, would take like 70,000-100,000 years. If so, until we discover ways to warp space time, etc. If humanity wants to leave this Earth, VASIMR is the future.
forwardbias 1 year ago 3
Apparently this thing can get us to Mars in a month? Down from 6.
Tedericoe 1 year ago
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holly shit a light turned on
postalheartrage 1 year ago
holly shit a light turned on
postalheartrage 1 year ago
:O holly shit a light turned on
postalheartrage 1 year ago
need more upgrade! cant go 20meters with that -.-
selearemus 1 year ago
Err I hope this isn't a dumb question but do you mind explaining to all the dummies like me what this is in a nutshell? I'm no rocket scientists like you are, but this looks hella intresting.
kittyfallout 1 year ago
@kittyfallout Short for Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, VASIMR® is a new high-power plasma-based space propulsion technology, initially studied by NASA and now being developed privately by Ad Astra. A VASIMR® engine could transport payloads in space far more efficiently and economically than todays chemical rockets.
Thewestcoastshooter 1 year ago
why in some vids does it glow blue and in other ones purple
RubixB0y 1 year ago
@RubixB0y its because they use different fuels
biccyboy 1 year ago
GO COSTA RICA !
AD ASTRA . . . GO DR. CHANG DIAZ. . YES tICO TECNOLGY IS THE REAL THING
cr2nr 1 year ago
In space, no-one can hear you ionize
shades2 1 year ago
@shades2 That was clever :3
wizardsbane 1 year ago
he he heeeee soon we are gona be the ufo`s that fly round earth like planets he hehe muwahahahahahahahahahaha aaaaahahahahahahahaha aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha sori cant wait for that time to come
pimpssmokesdrugs 1 year ago
Apart from being a very important development in propulsion and whatnot...
Its sooooo very sci-fi looking. Mmmmmm ionized gas........
TopGunMan 1 year ago
Hey, could someone answer this definitively for me? This engine doesn't have a likely application for breaking gravity, right? Is this only practical for moving in space, and not getting to it?
corvettesolos 1 year ago
@corvettesolos Yes no good for atmospheric use really. It will take time to accelerate, but as long as you can carry enough fuel, you can achieve very high speeds.
shades2 1 year ago
aliens watch out, we're coming !!!!
taschi71 1 year ago
Ad Astra is doing really amazing stuff. This rocket has the potential to open up the solar system for exploration. It can produce exhaust velocities of up to 300 km/s which is nearly 100 times more than possible with chemical rockets. Now if only we could overcome our irrational fear of N word and start to develop lightweight megawatt range nuclear reactors to properly supply this engine with required electrical power.
SkyyCaptainn 1 year ago 2
best place to go are the moons of jupiterlike titan or io.
screamjackson 1 year ago
@screamjackson Titan is Saturns moon dumbass
adruss85 1 year ago
this is how we are getting to mars
OGdank13 1 year ago 2
Great at last and hopefully, Humanity seems to have a future with sense
sagawi 1 year ago
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Great ...at last and hopefully humanity seems to has a future with a sense
sagawi 1 year ago
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sagawi 1 year ago
Welcome to the future!!!
sritger 2 years ago
lol, so bright makes everything else around it look dark
neostriker32 2 years ago 2
I'm studying astronautical engineering at college, and this ting has been universally declared, "The Shit," by my colleagues. It is essentially Ion Drive 2.0. It currently uses Argon as its propellant to make a 39 day trip possible using a 200kW nuclear power source (Solar doesn't produce enough juice) but they've been saying lately that its possible for it to use Hydrogen instead, meaning you could refuel almost anywhere in the solar system.
YNot1989 2 years ago
@YNot1989
although you'd need a gathering system, and ramscoops are out of the question. could probably still use electromagnetic fields (for the hydrogen.
Futzyy 2 years ago
@Futzyy
I was thinking more along the lines of refueling at an orbiting station around mars that is a dedicated hydrogen collector and processing plant. But the idea of a Buzzard Ramjet style is good too.
YNot1989 2 years ago
@YNot1989 how would it collector the hydrogen? some mini-line down to the atmosphere?
or could it scope enough at orbital height?
twdarkflame 2 years ago
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khalcyon2011 2 years ago
Mars has very little atmospheric hydrogen so that would be a very poor location for such a platform, one of the gas giants would a better choice; they all have atmospheres with high hydrogen concentrations. An orbital platform could be used for processing, but ship dropping into the atmosphere would be better than dropping a line due to greater control.
khalcyon2011 2 years ago
NO, don't touch! HOT!!!
squeege421 2 years ago
Only 39 days to mars? Then that would also reduce the problem of background radiation right?
maccollo 2 years ago 2
Yeah, that's one important way this technology will help us get to Mars.
DavyCrocket2003 2 years ago
Maybe we can perfect it and have Impulse 2, 3 ,4 etc. Ensign prepare to jump to impulse mark 4, engage!