NASA to Test Plasma Rockets on ISS

Plasma rockets are the rockets of the future, forget all the liquid oxygen mixtures or other solid rockets.  As Discovery explains, rather than heating chemicals and directing the resulting gases through high temperature metal nozzles, plasma (VASMIR) uses radio waves to create and speed up free flying electrically charged particles.  Those charged particles are then herded through nozzles made of magnetic fields.  How is that for your Friday science lesson?

The plasma rocket was designed by Frank Diaz, a former NASA astronaut, and it will use solar energy to produce the energy needed for movement.  This makes it green and reusable for moving things from low-Earth oribit (from the ISS) to low-Lunar orbit.  NASA intends to test this rocket engine in 2011 or 2012 from the ISS platform.  Should be pretty awesome considering both the sun and stars are made up of plasma.

(Discovery News)

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