Developing VASIMR®: historical perspective, present status, future plans

Franklin Chang Diaz

Ad Astra Rocket Company

Monday, January 11, 2021

2:00pm

Virtual

IAP Seminars

This talk will cover the technical and programmatic milestones in the development of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR^®) from its early origins in the 1980s at MIT, through its formative years as a NASA project, to its technological maturation at Ad Astra Rocket Company. Chang-Diaz will discuss its present status, major challenges and the company’s current plans for full commercial deployment of the technology in support of a rapidly emerging space market.

Bio: Franklin R. Chang Díaz serves as Chairman of the Ad Astra Board and Chief Executive Officer since July of 2005. An astronaut with NASA for 25 years and a veteran of seven space shuttle flights, Dr. Chang Díaz holds a PhD. in plasma physics from MIT and is the inventor of the VASIMR^® engine. He led the initial experiments at MIT and the Johnson Space Center and is the author of the original NASA patents on the technology. With over 30 years of experience in R&D programs and space operations, he also serves on the board of directors of Cummins Inc. (CMI, NYSE) a major US publicly traded company.