No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeTopicsBusinessAd Astra's deep space rocket moves into new testing phase with help from...

Ad Astra’s deep space rocket moves into new testing phase with help from NASA

Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang’s company Ad Astra Rocket has finalized a $9 million contract with NASA to help push the company’s VASIMR deep space engine one step closer to flight, according to a statement from the company this week.

Early tests for the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, were conducted at the Ad Astra facility in Liberia, the capital of the northwestern province of Guanacaste. But a new phase of high power, long duration testing will take place in Texas per the terms of the three-year contract with NASA.

Though this latest stage of the engine’s development is taking place at Ad Astra’s U.S. lab, the company’s Costa Rica facility will continue to support VASIMR’s development, the Liberia facility’s chief scientist, José Antonio Castro, told The Tico Times.

The testing made possible with NASA funds will fire the engine in a vacuum chamber for 100-hour continuous durations at a power level of 100 kilowatts. That power level is roughly equivalent to the 134-horsepower engine found in a Mini Cooper, Castro said.

The thrust of a sport compact might not inspire visions of deep space travel, but the power requirements of in-space travel are very different from those required to launch a shuttle into space, Castro explained.

“The problem with acceleration on Earth is air resistance. The faster you go the greater the air resistance,” Castro said, “But in space — in a vacuum — there’s no air to hold you back.”

That’s where the VASIMR comes in. The VASIMR engine uses plasma, an electrically charged gas that can reach extreme temperatures, and magnets to release controlled pulses of thrust. Engineers designed VASIMR as a scalable, high-efficiency, low-weight solution to space propulsion.

In space, that Mini Cooper could deflect an asteroid heading toward Earth.

The plasma engine isn’t powerful enough to lift a spaceship into orbit, but it can propel ships or cargo already in space faster and more efficiently than chemical propulsion systems, like those that have traditionally launched rockets.

The funding for the engine’s long-duration testing was awarded through NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP).

Trending Now

2025 Gold Cup: Honduras Advances After Dramatic Shootout, Mexico Ends Goal Drought

Honduras, with a surprising and dramatic penalty shootout victory over Panama, and Mexico, with a lackluster win against Saudi Arabia, advanced Saturday to the...

Costa Rican Court Orders Release of Migrants Deported Under Trump Deal

A court on Tuesday ordered Costa Rican authorities to release foreign migrants who had been detained in a shelter after being deported under an...

Retired Nicaraguan Army Captain Sentenced to 50 Years for Treason

A retired military officer was sentenced to 50 years in prison in Nicaragua for the crime of "treason against the homeland," his family denounced...

An Expat’s Take: 5 Burning Questions About Life in Costa Rica Right Now

Have you been keeping up with the various events taking place in Costa Rica? There is always something interesting going down, and here are...

Costa Rica’s Rare Birds at Risk as Human Activity Threatens Extinction

Costa Rica’s bare-necked umbrellabird, a striking black bird with a red throat pouch and crest, is in trouble. A new study in Nature Ecology...

Costa Rica’s Eyelash Viper Snake Is One of the Most Beautiful

There are at least 141 different species of snakes in Costa Rica. With that large number of species packed into such a tiny nation,...
spot_img
Costa Rica Tours
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica