How does the VASIMR® engine work?

As you can see in the diagram above. We inject a gas (Argon, Helium, Neon, Krypton, Hydrogen, etc) into the first stage or Helicon Coupler. The first stage is surrounded with a kind of “antenna” which is fed RF waves and then uses those RF waves to manipulate that gas turning it into plasma by ionizing it. That plasma (we call it cold plasma) travels into the next stage or ICH Coupler. The ICD has a separate antenna that sends a separate RF frequency. This RF frequency is now in charge of manipulating the plasma, you could say that is pushes the plasma, making it accelerate. And that is what comes out of, that is our exhaust, accelerated plasma.

Plasma is very hot. The exhaust from chemical rockets is in the thousands and tens of thousands of degrees. Plasma, on the other hand, is in the millions of degrees. This begs the question of how it does not melt the surrounding structure? How does it not melt the stages, the couplers? Our engine design includes a magnetic field which surrounds the plasma not allowing it to interact with any surface. This protects the hardware while still allowing us to reach very high temperatures.

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