, /PRNewswire/ — Ad Astra Rocket Company (Ad Astra) and The Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes) have signed a strategic partnership to advance high-power Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) technology to enable fast and reliable human and robotic missions to Mars and beyond. This alliance builds on Ad Astra’s 20-year experience with the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®) and SpaceNukes’ Kilopower reactor technology, developed over the last decade under the joint NASA/NNSA/LANL “KRUSTY” ground test program and the current Space Force JETSON program.
Technologies: Traditional electric propulsion technologies use electrostatic acceleration and operate at relatively low power levels (1-50 kW). In contrast, VASIMR®‘s electromagnetic architecture scales more favorably to higher power levels (100s of kW to multi-MW), its electrodeless design leads to long operating life, and its fundamental physics make it “propellant-agnostic,” able to use a variety of abundant and …