For those who don’t know, VASMIR is an acronym that stands for VAriable Specific Impulse Rocket.  For those still a bit confused, it’s a plasma rocket.  The design of this rocket started with research in the 1960’s and 1970’s.  The research was focused on creating and sustaining a “sun-like plasma substance here on earth”.  To create this sun-like substance, material has to be heated to sun-like temperatures, which is in the neighborhood of 5,800 Kelvin (or 9,980 degrees Fahrenheit).  Of course, there’s not a container on earth that can hold this substance, so work was done on constructing massive electromagnetic fields to hold it.

Fast-forward a few years, a Ph.D. and the start of an astronaut career, and you have one Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, taking this idea of massive electromagnetic fields and transforming it into the next-gen space propulsion system.  The unique thing about VASMIR is it’s simplicity in concept (of course, the physics and mathematics behind it are a bit more complicated). Essentially, Dr. Chang-Diaz is taking some inert gas, using strong magnetic fields to transform this gas into a plasma by stripping away electrons and allowing nature to follow its course.  This course includes some electrons and ions swirling at various angles, gaining momentum, and finally transferring that circular motion into axial (or longitudinal) motion.  At this point, Sir Isaac Newton takes over with basic laws of motion (”equal and opposite reactions and such), and the bigger, heavier ions produce small amounts of moment on the engine, thus propelling it forward.

Sill with me?  Good.

Initially, Dr. Chang-Diaz convinced Johnson Space Center to house his VASMIR rocket hardware on sight.  This is notable because JSC is not a propulsion research lab.  However, JSC and NASA management agreed to let Dr. Chang-Diaz house, and test, his rocket on sight.  Fast forward again through a few more years of research and shuttle flights, and the now Former Astronaut Dr. Chang-Diaz is the president and CEO of Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”) Rocket Company.  His rocket is now bigger and better.  During the presentation I attended today, there were no mention of the actual amount of thrust produced at the nozzle by VASMIR, but he did mention that VASMIR was close to producing enough thrust to provide a reboost capability to the ISS.

VASMIR, however, isn’t without it’s limitations.  Perhaps the biggest one is that it’s a space-only system.  In other words, it needs the microgravity of space to operate.  It simply doesn’t have enough power to get off the ground in a large gravity  field like the earth has.  However, what it lacks in raw power, it more than makes up for economically.  Without giving away any numbers (because I simply don’t remember them and I don’t want to misquote Dr. Chang-Diaz), let’s just say that Dr. Chang-Diaz and Ad Astra is doing the same thing his competition is doing for a fraction of the cost.

So here is a NASA project turned private company that could very well help NASA and the private space industry reach out into space.  How cool is that?  By the way, this lecture was the first in a series of lectures being produced by the Advanced Planning Office at JSC.  The APO is tasked with, among other things, producing a 20 year plan for JSC and coming up with a plan to implement that plan.  From my own personal understanding, this 20 year plan is to include ways in which JSC can further the reach of man into space, among other, center-specific items that they will tackle.  So if you’re at (or have access to) JSC, I would suggest you attend these series of lectures and speeches.  There is sure to be some good information coming from them.