{"id":314,"date":"2017-02-23T06:53:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T06:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.74.50.173\/2017\/02\/vasimr-plasma-rocket-targeting-100.html"},"modified":"2017-10-15T13:21:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T13:21:33","slug":"vasimr-plasma-rocket-targeting-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextbigfuture.com\/2017\/02\/vasimr-plasma-rocket-targeting-100.html","title":{"rendered":"Vasimr plasma rocket targeting 100 hours of continuous operation at 100 kW power level early in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
NASA NEXTSTep program awarded Ad Astra Vasimr plasma propulsion a three-year, $9 million contract in 2015. Ad Astra must fire its plasma rocket for 100 hours, at a power level of 100 kilowatts in 2018.<\/p>\n
This February, the company has worked about halfway through that contract.<\/a> Ars Technica reports that the VASIMR engine has been fired at 100kW for 10 seconds and 50kW for one minute.<\/p>\n The goal of this work is to demonstrate a VASIMR\u00ae engine in thermal steady-state by operating it continuously for<\/A> 100 hours at a power level of 100 kW<\/p>\n Objectives They are successfully hitting plan milestones<\/B><\/p>\n Rocket core integration with magnet (Aug 2016) <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n\u25e6 Achieve the goal over the course of 3 years in 3 phases
\n\u25e6 Phase a: Shake-out basic systems, pulses of minutes, uncooled booster section, accumulate 1 hour, inspect
\n\u25e6 Phase b: Add cooling to booster section, accumulate 100 hours, inspect
\n\u25e6 Phase c: Upgrade rocket core cooling for heat rejection at \u2248 200 \u00b0C, shake out high temperature cooling systems, install PPUs in vacuum, execute a 100 hour continuous test, inspect<\/p>
\n\u25e6 Field line mapping and rocket core alignment
\n\u25e6 Instrumentation and electrical testing
\n* Integration of VX-200SSa test article in chamber (Sept 2016)
\n\u25e6 Cooling line hookups and leak checking
\n\u25e6 RF matching circuit connections and tuning
\n\u25e6 Command, control and data acquisition verification
\n* Initial high-power firing with plasma in Phase-a (Oct 2016)
\n\u25e6 Phase-a will have pulse lengths on the order of minutes
\n\u25e6 Measure rocket performance
\n\u25e6 Evaluate aspects of the chamber and plasma dump
\n* Install final components for VX-200SSb (May 2017)
\n\u25e6 Fully cooled with operation times on the order of hours
\n* Hot steady-state operation with VX-200SS (Feb 2018)
\n\u25e6 Ready for 100 hours of continuous operation at 100 kW
\n\u25e6 New PPUs installed inside the vacuum chamber<\/p>\n