NASA is now working on an agreement with Ad Astra Rocket Company to test a new propulsion technology known as the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) that may enable much more rapid space transport as compared to chemical rockets. The test would be conducted aboard the International Space Station but no launch date has been set.
The plasma drive is intended to work by using electric power to blast hydrogen reaction mass from its rocket nozzles at a much greater velocity than normal chemically-fuelled rockets can achieve. This means that the carrying spacecraft gets a lot more acceleration or deceleration from a given amount of fuel, and so can potentially make interplanetary journeys in much shorter times.
The new propulsion system design is by Franklin Chang-Díaz, MIT plasma physicist and former NASA astronaut with seven Shuttle flights and 1600 hours in space. He now serves as CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company. Update from Discovery.com.
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