HOPE VASIMR® Technology Advanced Plasma Propulsion Piloted Vehicle
*VASIMR® is a registered trademark of Ad Astra Rocket Company
http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/history
Based on the concept vehicle designs presented by the NASA RASC (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts) team in 2003.
A somewhat dated design from the early 2000’s – perhaps not as “sexy” as the Nautilus-X MMSEV which was conceived nearly a decade later, but still well worth a look in my opinion!
Sources were the following publications by Pat Troutman and Kristen Bethke, et al:
HOPE Piloted Concepts Publication
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20030063128.pdf
HOPE Piloted Concepts Presentation
http://documentslide.com/documents/project-hope.html
http://www.nasa-academy.org/soffen/travelgrant/bethke.pdf
3D Models and animation by fragomatik
Some assets, images and textures courtesy NASA
http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/
Music track “Xristospiano” by the wonderful and generous Torley Wong!
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/
This music is made available by Torley under Creative Commons license at Archive Org:
https://archive.org/details/Torley_Wong_-_The_Final_Selection