Costa Rican lab to test plasma space rocket (Reuters/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

Thursday, July 20, 2006; Posted: 11:35 a.m. EDT (15:35 GMT)

LIBERIA, Costa Rica (Reuters) -- Better known for coffee, surfing and jungles, tiny tropical Costa Rica is now home to scientists working on a plasma rocket engine they hope will slash travel times to the moon and beyond.

Led by Costa Rican-born former NASA space shuttle astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, the Houston-based Ad Astra Rocket Company inaugurated a site last weekend in the Central American nation to test rocket components.

The company hopes to sell the finished rocket engine, propelled by super-hot plasma, to NASA for moon trips planned for the next decade and an eventual lunar space station.

Scientists believe rockets that run on plasma, the stuff that makes stars shine, will be faster than rockets currently used in space travel.
***
Chang-Diaz said he located the laboratory in the Costa Rican town of Liberia with the hope it will plant the seeds of space-age industry in a developing country that depends on tourism for much of its income.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/07/20/costa.rica.rockets.reut/index.html

[soothsayer]

1. bye bye pristine rain forest?

[catmother]

3. costa rica is very concerned about it's environment. i don't

think they would allow this if it would hurt it.

[catmother]

2. costa rica will not be a 3rd world country for long. i've done a

lot of research and they are the pride of latin america. we considered retiring there. i wish them well.

[Benhurst]

4. Don't they realize that space belongs to

The World's Only Superpower?

The effrontery of it all!

[qazplm]

5. plasma rocket plus plasma bubble?

We have one thread talking about using a plasma bubble to help protect a crew in space from radiation.
And another thread talking about a plasma rocket.

sounds like an all-plasma, all-the-time spaceship is on the horizon! lol