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NASA Plans Test of New Plasma Drive
Sallust writes "Flightglobal has an interesting article about the testing of a new electrically powered plasma engine called the Vasimir. It's being developed by former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz and promises to greatly reduce the time and fuel required for interplanetary journeys. According to the article: 'The Vasimir involves the injection of a gas such as hydrogen into an engine that turns it into a plasma. That plasma is then energised further using radio signals as it flows through the engine, a process controlled by electromagnetic waves from superconducting magnets. Accelerated and heated through this process the plasma is focused and directed as exhaust by a magnetic nozzle. Vasimir is many times more efficient than conventional chemical rockets and far less fuel is needed.' The developers are finalising an agreement with NASA to fit a scaled-down version of the engine to the ISS to conduct operational tests. There is also a concept video on YouTube suggesting a journey time for a manned craft to Mars on the order of 60-70 days."
Have you ever heard of nuclear thermal rockets?
Whether he has or hasn't, he may have instead been talking about an electric rocket, such as the one described here and discussed here. I'd say that calling him "stupid" for that was rude, but mostly it was just perplexing.
I've you had read the article, it explains that "The Vasimir involves the injection of a gas such as hydrogen into an engine that turns it into a plasma." The most direct method of doing that would be to pass it through the reactor core. ( assuming you're using a reactor that can produce high enough temperatures ) I admit I thought he was talking about some type of conventional light water reactor, hence my comment. And I did not call him stupid, I called the idea of boiling water to produce energy on a spacecraft "stupid". ( or maybe I should have said "out of place" ) If indeed you were to reject thermoelectrics and go with a turbine design, I would expect it would be a compact closed-loop high temperature gas reactor that used something such a Helium for it's cooling and heat capture.
Maybe you should think before posting patronizing "watch your behavior" comments from your higher level of self decreed moral superiority.
jdb2
damn, ignorant with a typo - ah, well...