Costa Rica News – Franklin Chang’s company intends to operate its plasma engine for 100 continuous hours.
It is in its third year of a contract with NASA, which granted it $9 million to achieve the goal by next year.
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Motor (VASIMR) will ideally be operated at a power of 100 Kilowatts for the 100 hours by 2018.
It is so far been operating at that power for periods of ten minutes.
The US space agency is interested in advancing human exploration in space as well as spacecraft operations.
The VASIMR is an alternative kind of engine that could be able to conduct a probe or ship to the desired direction in space.
This engine is essential in order for humans to explore deep space which can not be achieved with the chemical engines of today. There is an extraordinary team executing the development.
