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INSIDECOSTARICA
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Thursday 30 September 2010 |
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Costa
Rica's
Rocket
Company
Offers
Stock
Purchase
The Ad
Astra
Rocket
Company
with its
headquarters
in
Houston,
Texas
and
branch
in
Liberia,
Guanacaste,
announced
on
Wednesday
that it
will be
become a
limited
public
corporation,
being
listed
in the
Costa
Rica
stock
exchange,
offering
stock to
investors
with a
minimum
of
us$25.000.
The
company
was
founded
in 2005
by Costa
Rican
scientist
and
former
NASA
astronaut,
Franklin
Chang-Diaz,
to
develop
a plasma
engine
for use
in the
U.S.
space
program.
Chang
said
that the
type of
investor
that the
company
expects
to
attract
are more
sophisticated
and
knowledgeable
and who
have an
understanding
of the
stock
market.
Although
the
announcement
was made
yesterday,
the
Bolsa
Nacional
de
Valores
(Costa
Rican
National
Stock
Exchange)
does not
expect
the
stocks
to be
available
to be
public
for at
least
three
more
weeks,
with a
tentative
release
date of
October
12 for
the
stock.
The
focus of
Ad Astra
is the
development
of the
Variable
Specific
Impulse
Magnetoplasma
Rocket (VASIMR)
- an
electro-magnetic
thruster
for
spacecraft
propulsion.
It uses
radio
waves to
ionize
and heat
a
propellant
and
magnetic
fields
to
accelerate
the
resulting
plasma
to
generate
thrust.
It is
one of
several
types of
spacecraft
electric
propulsion
systems.
The
method
of
heating
plasma
used in
VASIMR
was
originally
developed
as a
result
of
research
into
nuclear
fusion.
VASIMR
is
intended
to
bridge
the gap
between
high-thrust,
low-specific
impulse
propulsion
systems
and
low-thrust,
high-specific
impulse
systems.
VASIMR
is
capable
of
functioning
in
either
mode.
Chang
has been
working
on the
plasma
project
since
1977.
More on
the
VASIMIR
project
from
Wikpedia.
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Costa Rica's Daily English News
Source
Apdo. 2133-1000, San José, Costa
Rica
Tel: (506) 2231 3205 / (506) 8399
9642
Fax: (506) 2232 6337
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