The November 2000 issue of Scientific American had a thorough review of this technology. Unfortunately the article is not available for free at their website (
ok a vasmir engine would require a much higher power lift vehicle in the fact it has fuel and a power source since it is made for larger space vehicles the current vasmir is larger than one meter in size since the engine is made so that the trust is variable hence the name vasmir it is a plasma rocket that can change its trust with a fast response time and is almost like a chemical rocket type trusting (not force just the way it can increase and decrease power) I hope this has helped on the net you can find the full diagrams that show the vasmir.
VASIMR is low-thrust, high-specific impulse, in-space propulsion. It will not be used in an atmosphere. There will not be a nuclear launch engine for at least 2 generations. Space reactors aren't "hot" until after they are on an earth-escape trajectory.
ok the biggest part of the vasmir is the ability to thrust as in to vary the actuall output of the engine were as many ideas on the boards now have 2 settings off and on this has the ability to increase and decrease the actuall "thrust" output of the engine and yes it is for vacume only it is a plasma drive and plasma drives cannont create sufficent newtons of thrust (not to mention plasmas are hard to make in roon air i used to work on rf plasma generators) these engines give something that many dont right now like the hall and most of the other magneto hydrodynamic drives.
