Canadian Plasma Rocket Breakthrough, Could Shorten A Trip To Mars To As Little As 40 Days.

A Nova Scotia company that builds transmitters for radio stations is helping develop a new plasma rocket engine that could cut a trip to Mars down to just 40 days.

Nautel Ltd. of Hacketts Cove has partnered with a Texas rocket company, Ad Astra, to build a radio-frequency amplifier for a new plasma rocket engine.

The radio waves from the amplifier heat gas, such as argon or xenon, into plasm as hot as the surface of the sun. The rocket then uses a series of magnets to propel the plasma out of the rocket at incredible speeds.

Rather than the short, explosive blast seen in chemical rocket engines, plasma rockets provide a continuous, high-speed stream of hot gas that could accelerate a spacecraft to Mars over a period of weeks.

Such a spacecraft would then turn its plasma engines toward its destination and fire them in the opposite direction to slow down.

Plasma rockets aren't suitable for getting a spaceship from Earth into space, but once in space, a spaceship using plasma propulsion could reach Mars in 40 days, a trip that could currently last up to two years.

Source

And out of nowhere comes this story ...
Wouldn't this be something ? Can anyone out there ever remember Canada being mentioned in the same sentence as rocket science before ? Yes , I remember the Arrow but sense then I can not think of any other such news ?

Either way good for both of these companies , Nautel Ltd. of Hacketts Cove and Ad Astra

As cool as this is how "old news" do you think Plasma Rockets are compared to the stuff we don't see? I want the good stuff!!! Great Find!!! S&F

[edit on 28-1-2010 by CaptSplatter]

reply to post by Max_TO


The Space Shuttle Space Arm can hold a hockey stick.

Can hold a large Tim Horton's too.

I remember seeing a report, about 10 years ago, that the Russian's were experimenting with exactly the same thing. They were saying 3 months round-trip Earth to Mars, including a 3-week stay on Mars. They said the only reason it would take this long is that, because of the relatively short distance to Mars, they wouldn't be able to get the engine running at full speed. If they did, the ship would overshoot Mars without being able to slow down.

I believe they were talking of a trip to Alpha Centauri in slightly more than 4 years. That's almost light speed.

Anyway, just to say, I saw this on some science show or another about 10 years ago and had been wondering since what had happened to it. This sounds like they're using the Russian technology.

reply to post by Sean48


I worked there, not a fun job. People really want their coffee perfect, i had one thrown at me once. really wierd. One night, we had a bagel fight with all of the excess that was there that we would normally throw out.

I got fired. why? a homeless came in to buy a coffee, i gave him it, and decided to give him a box of pastries that would have been thrown out. they saw it on the camera, asked why i did it, and i said it would have been a waste, and then they said your fired.

They let me work my last shift, so i accidently screwed up 400 muffins, over 600 dollars. seriously, it was an accident.


I always post off topic

Amazing find! S&F! I wonder how long a trip to the moon would be now?

[edit on 28-1-2010 by gandhi]

Who wants to go to Mars?

It is bad enough flying here on earth.

I wish the little boys in government would stop playing with little boys' toys, grow up, and put the money where people need it.

Fascinating technology!

Me thinks they might be using this technology already, to get the satelites out to Mars. Though that is just my imagination running wild.

Imagine when/if we can get people to Mars within 40 days - the solar system could be just another destination in which to visit many different places with relative ease!

reply to post by gandhi


Heh, nice story!

Just to let you know, if you ever are told you are fired but told you can finish your shift again. Tell that to the unemployment office.

If a company really wants to fire you they should not let you finish any shift. What a bunch of bungholes.

Great story OP! S & F!

Originally posted by FeralMonkeyMagic
Fascinating technology!

Me thinks they might be using this technology already, to get the satelites out to Mars. Though that is just my imagination running wild.

Imagine when/if we can get people to Mars within 40 days - the solar system could be just another destination in which to visit many different places with relative ease!

You are correct. Those that come to mind are Deep Space 1, Hayabusa, and Dawn. There are also station keeping thrusters using this tech on a few satellites.
Acceleration is not very high, takes Dawn like 4 days to go from zero to sixty, but it's always there and has a much higher speed thrust than chemical rockets, so ultimate speeds are very high.

reply to post by Max_TO


Canada has more rocket-related expertise than you might think. The Arrow was not technically a rocket but it was cutting edge for it's day.
A Cdn scientist by the name of Gerald Bull was well on his way to building a cannon that could literally fire a satellite into orbit. When his government funding dried up, he went to work for Sudam Hussein and had partially built several very large caliber cannon (that were fixed and aimed at Israel) for Hussein. Bull was assassinated before they could be completed. The Mossad is the agency most often cited as the likely assassins.

S&F!

More info:
VASIMR

This rocket would not be suitable for short trips, like to Moon or near earth asteroids, which would take longer than using conventional rockets. But because of its low but continuous acceleration it would truly shine in interplanetary missions.

VASIMR is also supposed to be installed on the ISS for efficient reboosting, sometimes in 2011-12.

reply to post by Beancounter72


Thanks for reminding me about Gerald Bull

I for one hope this isn't the last we hear of the joint venture and would love to see this tech applied in our attempts to make Mars a little bit closer .

AMZING!

GOCANUKS!

in other news,get out your telescopes this weekend:

www.universetoday.com...

reply to post by misfitofscience


LOL funny you mention that link . While out tonight I couldn't help but notice the moon and Mars

Just wish I could have got the telescope out in a good spot to see them in all there glory .

Ah , dreams of telescopes & Canadian rockets


[edit on 29-1-2010 by Max_TO]

reply to post by learningtofly


Seriously?! This is your contribution to this thread?

We use very little "tax payer" money on NASA. Most of goes to wars. Pay attention and learn where to put you effort into.

As for the OP, great find, I'm happy to see the great scientists up here putting in our contributions to space flight. Canadians have done a lot and hopefully we will get our hands into these things as well.

S&F

Pred...

reply to post by Max_TO


The radio/microwave directed plasma rocket was invisioned by a NASA employee a couple of years ago. (I will try to quote source later). They were said to be several years away from a demo. With Obama gutting the space program, we may have to wait a while.

Originally posted by arbiture
reply to post by Max_TO

 

The radio/microwave directed plasma rocket was invisioned by a NASA employee a couple of years ago. (I will try to quote source later). They were said to be several years away from a demo. With Obama gutting the space program, we may have to wait a while.

I'm pretty sure that was the VASIMR rocket (it was thought up by a former Astronaut), and from the sound of it it's mostly privately funded and should be flying in a couple years.

As for the OP its nice to see a Canadian company involved in it (although I wouldn't go so far as to call it a Canadian Rocket). Maybe with technologies like this it could we might actually live long enough to see man set foot on Mars (barring greedy politicians of course).

So, if it could reach Mars in 40 days, shouldn't it be able to reach the Moon in a couple of hours? This could get interesting...

Very cool story, S&F!

I wonder if someone could do the Maths here and work out what the speed would be?

Would our craft actually withstand this speed, and would humans be able to travel at this speed also?

It's great technology, but i'm certain there will be some drawbacks safety wise.

Any ideas?

g.

here's a vid of vasimr vx-200

from the comments:

Chemical rockets about 10,000 Miles per hour max.
Ion drives about 200,000 miles per hour max.
VASIMR about 650,000 miles per hour max speed!!!!

those interested in plasma rockets are advised to watch this guy's videos

Dr. Ben Longmier

"A few common answers to questions I get from students during lab tours:
-there is no top speed for VASIMR, spacecraft speed is only limited on the amount of propellant (and current demonstrated technology keeps us way under light speed)

the quote above is from the last post of this thread in another forum.