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Costa Rica's Radical Rocket

Getting to Mars' or anywhere else in the solar system-may be easier with Ad Astra Rocket Co.'s plasma thruster

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Photo: Randi Silberman
ASTRONAUT’S DREAM: Franklin Chang Díaz, the founder of Ad Astra, says that a VASIMR rocket, could deliver a crew of people to Mars in 39 days. That configuration would require about 200 megawatts to power the thruster, which is about the size of the nuclear reactors on board some submarines today.
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