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Veteran astronaut seeks funding to boost plasma engines
http://www.sen.com/news/veteran-astronaut-seeks-funding-to-boost-plasma-engines.html
Veteran astronaut seeks funding to boost plasma engines
An artist's impression of a plasma-powered space tug en route to the Moon. Credit: Copyright Ad Astra Rocket Company © all rights reserved
By Paul Sutherland 15 July 2013
(Sen) - A company developing a powerful new rocket engine has become the latest space enterprise to seek crowd-sourced funding.
Ad Astra Rocket Company, which is headed by a former NASA astronaut who shares the record for flights on the Space Shuttle, with seven trips into orbit, is working on advanced plasma propulsion technology.
But the $46,000 being sought through Kickstarter is not to help the company develop the engine. It will pay for the production of a documentary video to help spread the word about their innovative work.
Ad Astra’s revolutionary engine is called Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) and its inventor, veteran astronaut Dr Franklin Chang Díaz, has been working on it since he researched plasma drives for his doctorate in the late Seventies.
After early experimental work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Plasma Fusion Center and then NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), the private company was set up in 2005 dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion. Also on the company board is George Abbey, a former Director of JSC and so another man with great experience of manned spaceflight.
<snip>
Veteran astronaut seeks funding to boost plasma engines
An artist's impression of a plasma-powered space tug en route to the Moon. Credit: Copyright Ad Astra Rocket Company © all rights reserved
By Paul Sutherland 15 July 2013
(Sen) - A company developing a powerful new rocket engine has become the latest space enterprise to seek crowd-sourced funding.
Ad Astra Rocket Company, which is headed by a former NASA astronaut who shares the record for flights on the Space Shuttle, with seven trips into orbit, is working on advanced plasma propulsion technology.
But the $46,000 being sought through Kickstarter is not to help the company develop the engine. It will pay for the production of a documentary video to help spread the word about their innovative work.
We constantly receive enquiries about the working of our rocket. So we have set out to make this Kickstarter-funded documentary that explains the abilities of our technology
Ad Astra’s revolutionary engine is called Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) and its inventor, veteran astronaut Dr Franklin Chang Díaz, has been working on it since he researched plasma drives for his doctorate in the late Seventies.
After early experimental work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Plasma Fusion Center and then NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), the private company was set up in 2005 dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion. Also on the company board is George Abbey, a former Director of JSC and so another man with great experience of manned spaceflight.
<snip>
Their kick starter page is http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/821885354/animating-vasimr-the-future-of-spaceflight
