VASIMR Fires At Full Power For 15 Seconds

[dphoenixx]

after all these years dreaming... about all those science fiction stories... I might still have the chance to witness the first real spaceship leaving Earth. Even if it will be without warp technology...

If that occasion happens when I am living my last hours... only watching them through television or whatever kind of communication devices mankind will possess then... That would be the perfect death for me... the happiest hour in my entire life. Shall I live longer? Even better.

[GangsterHutterite]

If somebody could develop a decently small and light fusion reactor, you could get up to 1 Gigawatt of power. With enough hydrogen, you could fly to Mars in literally a week.

[quidproquo2004]

@GangsterHutterite That would be cool, but one step at a time. With changes in how we (as a species) view nuclear power, the VASIMR technology could bring humans to Mars in two months. That's pretty darn good.

[energyalt56]

@GangsterHutterite Very interesting comment for 1Gwatt,pls coonent referance or where to find out more info? Thanks

[Big69Bull]

Genius, Its the second comming of space travel. My hats off to you fellows.

[zadeh79]

What a beautiful light .

[SoCalFlya]

How many lbs. of thrust did that engine create?

[Parico90]

@SoCalFlya actually the force it generates is around 5 newtons, but the difference is the efficiency and constancy it has, a chemical rocket generates thousands of newtons but just for 8 minutes; this baby will make less but will last soooo much more before running out of Argon. Source: Ad Astra Rocket Company

[SoCalFlya]

@Parico90 Do you think that it will overcome the forces it encounters in space for it to be efficient? Such as dust, solar wind, etc.?

[Parico90]

@SoCalFlya sorry for last explaination, I will try to explain it better. The key for a long long journey is DISNTANCE, and SPEED, analize this metafore. take your car and accelerate it in front of a wall. It wont move. Do it again but start accelerating a mile away from the wall, now probably you will destroy it easily. That happens with the ship in the way to, let's say mars, when it is protected by the magnetosphere it adquires an enourmous speed, so nothing in the space will be a barrier

[Tjita1]

Could one of these be built for use inside the atmosphere to launch objects into space?

[jesse2076]

old school tech what ever happened to the secret Nazi anti gravity tech?that was back in the 40's right?

[Helge129]

@jesse2076 That never existed, or if it did, didn't work. If it did work, Nazi-Germany would have won the War.

[Crahvin]

@demagoguely at full power, 5.7N. About 1.28 lb or 0.58 kg. Not very much, but escape velocity of exhaust is way higher (50km/s), so it's capable of much higher speeds than the conventional boosters (even the solid fuel ones).

[troygreenfilms]

@Crahvin 70km/s I just read in a pdf assuming vasimr is xenon.

[demagoguely]

so... how many pounds of thrust this baby got

[douro20]

Is that a cryopump in the background?

[machinmanidol2]

0:01 there is somwhere the masks doods! RUN GORDON RUN!!!!!!! ^^

[tappakeggaday1]

have the said what kind of thrust they were getting and what was the fuel consumption ratio?

[RiVvenGuard]

Love it when sci-fi becomes a reality <3

[Zhengyis]

our first real spaceship engine hurray

[Amoose109]

its a warp drive

[lesleyhenriquez]

@Amoose109 I call it Alcubierre drive. Google it sometime. Warp drive wasn't just made up. Interesting material.

[Ormaaj]

looks like a bright light

[CryptoQuick]

I wonder if it will really sound like that in space.

[mentalone1995]

@CryptoQuick There is no sound in space, so it won't sound like anything at all! :D

[dumle29]

@mentalone1995 well there is sound in the ISS since its made out of something.

[mentalone1995]

@dumle29 Yes there is sound in the ISS because it has oxygen that is essential for sound to occur. But in space there is no sound whatsoever because of the lack of atmosphere

[sawu101]

@CryptoQuick there is no sound in space dumbo

[tappakeggaday1]

@sawu101 think thats what they said about underwater until they heard the first whale song, or what the planet Jupiter sounds like.I am sure it can be done

[SVKBizarre]

Wow, thats great, thanks for sharing all videos benwl, but someone should finally start to do some serious science about anti-matter engines.

[aerowenn]

Was that arcing just before the final shutdown? I've been looking at the design of this ion engine, and it doesn't appear to have any type of neutralization, maybe I'm missing something.

[Weenchit]

Neat idea but it will never power anything greater than a small satellite. I still think NTP is a better idea to develop.

[counterclockwise123]

In order to reach other solar systems we need to travel many thousands of times faster than the speed of light.

Even if we do manage to somehow ever travel at the speed of light it won't be of much use.

[321crash]

@counterclockwise123 I'm ok with traveling to mars in a month :P

[whoppix]

@counterclockwise123 If you manage to travel at a speed close to the speed of light, time deletion sets in, so time will slow down for you drastically. Then you would be able to reach stars millions of light-years away in a time that you would perceive as only a second.

[counterclockwise123]

@whoppix That doesn't make any sense and please don't try and explain it to me cus I probably wont understand anyway.

I don't care who or what laws say that it's possible to slow down time. It just sounds ridiculous. I won't believe it till I experience it.

[whoppix]

@counterclockwise123 Well, it couldn't possibly make sense to you if you do not even want to listen to explanations and try to understand it. The law that governs (amongst other things) time deletion due to speed is Einsteins special theory of relativity, and it's quite easy to understand mathematically (if you've done highschool mathematics, you will be able to understand it).

It's also very real, and we can experience and measure it when going into the earth's orbit.

[JovialEel]

This is only Tech I shit. I can't wait for the future.

[inn3rligh7]

umpf ... i love science !!!

[kunkcity]

very cool, one more step closer to light speed

[poplglop]

Consitering that that thing can fly a 200 ton object at 34 miles per second, I do believe earth just got pushed an inch.... Woo!! No but could that really happen? Well earth is rotating at about 100 miles per hour and traveling around the sun at many more times that speed I don't think that that's possible.... Or is it? *dramitic music*

[optivite]

Moray Kin: A rotating plasma produces a gravity-vector. Orient the vector away from the Earth's surface and you have levitation, or degravitation, "LIFT-OFF"

[XSandCreeperX]

looks like a thing that makes zombies

[MrAmerica1995]

I read that if testing on the ISS proves successfull, then converting the entire sation to propulsion by Vasmir would reduce the cost of refueling the station to around 1/20th of what it is now, which is somewhere in the hundreds of millions per semi anual refueling trip.

[Sealy57]

No warp drive yet. This method of propulsion is initially intended for long missions where momentum can be built up gradually. Given a long enough period of time, theoretically, velocity could approach the speed of light. The consequences of that have yet to be determined.

[RazorsharpLT]

@Sealy57 I'm sorry, but VASIMR will never reach the speed of light, sadly, the maximum it can reach is 300 km/s.

BUT it's still a quite reasonably high speed comapred to the older engines, wich reach up to 15 km/s.

But the main advantage of VASIMR is that it will make outer space missions univerasally cheaper, meaning more research could be done on better engines, and it's firing duration is measured in months.

[Z1Z2Z5Z4]

@RazorsharpLT I see. Then what is needed is a gravitational-field generating engine that will fold space and live up to the conceptualization portrayed in the movie Dune, to wit, "traveling without moving."

[RazorsharpLT]

@Z1Z2Z5Z4 In order to Successfully travel trough what you may call a "wormhole" you need to have a ship with a hull that is almost as light as planck mass.

[AngerOfTheLands]

wow its gettin close...last time i looked for this on youtube i barley found anything...now theres TONS of tests runs.

[AngerOfTheLands]

And it might seem to cost alot...but the iss costs ALOT to keep up there every year...this rocket would cut costs by 80 percent or something rediculous like that.

[AngerOfTheLands]

I was thinking to myself .... how can they make a metal strong enough to take the hottest of hot... then looked into this, the end of a rocket usually needs to be made of CRAZY Hi Temp material, but what they do is use Electromagnets to generate a force, so the propulsion or plasma doesnt actually touch the end of the rocket... so theres no rapid expansion, deterioration, it can take wicked high temparatures and use more corrosive propellant, Its gonna change recon space satelites BIG TIME.

[fishboy01]

what is it?



[Kpeters]

Made In Costa Rica :D nice

[myrandomspaces]

imma firin ma lazar!! BAHHH

[FetalVivisection]

Also check out John Ernst Worrell Keely

[FetalVivisection]

I think we should be looking in to some of Tesla's work. Lots of good information and gadgets!

[abram730]

I'll bet you get max thrush just as you switch to max power. A bit of a push off from the lower velocity plasma. You may want to investigate that on ISS as it woulb hard to test on earth.. Try pulsing the high power to maximize the push off effect if there is one. If it's more efficient then you may not need as much sustained power as you think...

[fwoqma]

It costs 400,000 dollars to fire this weapon, for 12 seconds.

[thefronge]

@fwoqma

It's not a weapon, it's an engine.

[dohboiii]

@thefronge What is it the engine to?

[thefronge]

@dohboiii

A spaceship. You don't even use it in the atmosphere.

[doormagic]

@fwoqma it works with gold?

[aepceo1]

@fwoqma You're a moron. Nuff said. 

[SkyyCaptainn]

Cool. It's blue white glow looks so sci-fi. Can't wait to see how the VASIMR performs on ISS.

[danthemanzizzle]

@SkyyCaptainn are they using a plasma unit to give the iss a boost or what?

[SadieGlutz]

@danthemanzizzle I think he meant how VASIMR in space as general.

But ISS uses motors to correct it's position etc. so it could and i think are going to use these motors in the future.

[sudoLinux666]

@SkyyCaptainn Agreed, seems extremely promising.

[blazerblast]

THE FUTURE,ADAIN ELECTRICITY

[Cobra2468]

Cool flashlight.

[ghostone1989]

coollllll.......

[TurboDally]

Baby steps first though...Its nice to see some progress like this come along, I hear this engine is very efficient compared to other engines, doesn't seem to make a great deal of noise either...

[ehack87]

It's in a vacuum TurboDally.

[TurboDally]

d'oh

[niiidar]

It's in a vacuum, so you can't hear it.

[TurboDally]

Warp drive here I come...

[mattetjus]

impulse drive ;)

warping space is in a totally different ball park

[Sumdude54]

@mattetjus Soon enough,soon enough.

[dustinmolieri]

@mattetjus easy cheesy. When I was having my wisdom teeth pulled, my dentist gave me some nitros oxide. About 3 seconds (maybe it was 30 seconds, call it time dialation) about 3 to 30 seconds later, space started to warp. Light started to bend. Without the warp field to protect me I was nocked unconcious.

[MoarSugarcubes]

@TurboDally :D You know how to bend the laws of physics? Please, tell.~~'

[RazorsharpLT]

@TurboDally

What does any of this have to do with warp drives? We are a millenia away from them, if they're even possible.

[Membrane556]

@TurboDally

This is more akin to an impulse engine.

[V3SuperStar]

@TurboDally

Sadly, this has nothing to do with warp technology, which can already be created, but not on a human level because of the energy consumption involved in such a phenomena.

[mkifyousayso]

@V3SuperStar

I believe you're taking him slightly too literally.

[supertrinko]

awesome development people, keep it up