R&D Support Services
About Us A Delaware Corporation, capitalizing on more than 25 years of NASA R&D PhD Scientists, engineers, technicians skilled in the design fabrication and testing of prototype hardware. Facilities in EARTH University Liberia, Costa Rica Corporate Headquarters Houston, TX
Support Services Experimentation and testing with: Instrumentation, data acquisition Mechanical design, 3D CAD, CAM, FEA Analysis Specialty machining to aerospace standards Large scale vacuum facilities Cryogenics Magnetic field environments Circuit-board and electrical fabrication Radio-frequency electrical engineering High power plasma sources Computer modeling of: Space trajectories (orbital mechanics) Heat and fluid flow RF-powered plasmas and plasma jets Magnetic systems and shielding
Laboratory Testing Capabilities Infrared camera Laser alignment Optical spectrometers Microwave interferometers Residual gas analyzer EMI sensors 3-axis magnetometer Retarding potential energy analyzers Ion flux, single and double Langmuir probes Plasma momentum flux and force targets Data acquisition speeds up to MHz range Vibrational Analysis Custom searchable database software
Industrial Measurements & Automation National Instruments software and hardware National Instruments LabVIEW experienced Developers Experience with CompactRIO, CompactDAQ, PXI, SCXI, Motion, & more MATLAB LabVIEW block diagram Experienced developers of, automated, GUI d analysis routines PLCs Experienced developer of Allen-Bradley/Rockwell PLCs Built and programmed PLC system to fully automate large vacuum test facility LabVIEW rocket monitor GUI
ProEngineer Wildfire 4.0 Mechanical Design & Drafting
Machining Capabilities State-of-the-art machine shops Complex, high precision parts (e.g. liquid rocket engine injector plates) Will work closely with engineers to produce quality parts or assemblies Prototype and mockup shop Exotic metals and ceramics Full traceability Stainless Steel Titanium Aluminium
Machine Shops Liberia, Costa Rica Houston, TX Machinist and technicians with over 20 years experience.
Vacuum Testing 150 m 3, < 10-8 torr base pressure 5 m 3 high vacuum 10 m 3 vacuum Houston, TX Houston, TX Liberia, Costa Rica
Vacuum Testing Vacuum Capabilities Pumping speeds over 300,000 l/s End cap (14 ) and personnel (3 ) access Fast pump-down and vent Rail tracks for easy installation/removal Several large viewports (> 20 ), HD internal video 2.5 m x 5 m precision translation stage (other vacuum motion capability) Coaxial, HV/LV/multi-pin power/signal, optical, thermocouple, and fluid feed thru de-ionized & regular chilled water 100 kw cooling capacity Multi-channel data acquisition, NI-PXI 2 & 10 ton cranes 1.5 MVA 480 VAC service
Cryogenic Testing In-house cryogenic testing facilities 8 high lift cryocoolers 6000 gal. liquid nitrogen bulk tank Cryogenic thermal load testing and characterization Three vacuum chambers are used for thermal vacuum insulation Experience with modifying and testing a high temperature superconducting magnet fixture for NASA Operation of a large scale 2 tesla cryogenfree superconducting magnet
Electrical & RF Power Engineering Capabilities Altium schematic capture / PCB design, multi-layer (up to 12) circuit boards 1000 sqft electronics fabrication, assembly and test lab Modern high-quality test equipment, e.g. network analyzer, vector impedance meter, oscilloscopes... State of the art solid-state RF power generation with Nautel Ltd 200 kw solid-state RF power installation with supporting electronics In-vacuum RF networks, control and sensor electrnics
Plasma Sources Decades of experience in developing high power plasma sources. More than 100 kw Ion Heating Helicon plasma sources that efficiently produce over 300 Amperes of directed ion current. Variety of gases.
Plasma Sources VX-50, 50kW VX-200, 200kW VX-CR, 12kW VX-100, 100kW
Space Trajectory Analysis Ad Astra has performed mission analysis studies with JSC using the NASA Copernicus code Mars Sample Return Jupiter Capult Low-thrust lunar trajectory in rotating reference frame
Graphical Design & Animation Asteroid Deflection Space Debris Mitigation Space Station Reboost
Plasma Modeling Ionosphere Field Strength Interference Plasma Jets RF Sources Plasma Reactors Magnetic Field Line Connections
Other Services Large Scale Mockups Specialty Testing Aurora Platform Mockup Experience with building high fidelity mockups for large scale spaceflight projects Zero G Testing Over 50 hours flight time testing hardware in NASA Zero-g aircraft
Contact Information USA Jared P. Squire, Ph.D. Sr. VP of Research Costa Rica Jorge Oguilve-Araya Operations Director 141 W. Bay Area Blvd Webster, TX 77598 (281) 526-0500 main line (281) 526-0514 office jared.squire@adastrarocket.com Earth University Campus 10 km west of Liberia Guanacaste, Costa Rica 011.506.2666.9272 main line jorge@adastrarocket.com