[singlepic id=191 w=250 h=187 float=right]Well, not yet, but the major milestone reached by Ad Astra last week puts the goal within sight, at least. Ad Astra successfully fired their 201KW VASMIR plasma rocket in a vacuum last week, which they will implement on the ISS in October, 2013. The 200KW rocket will use a mere fraction of the fuel currently required to keep the ISS in orbit (0.3 tonnes as compared to 7.5 tonnes currently).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvuNUNqW6Sc[/youtube]
Ad Astra’s CEO (and former NASA astronaut), Franklin Diaz, has much loftier goals in mind: one of their VASMIR rockets running at 10-20 megawatts could power a craft to Mars in a mere 39days. Wow.
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