Subscribe to our Daily News RSS feed.

Read the Daily News on your mobile device.

96th Anniversary of Moravia Canton
Features circus show, Sept. 30, 3 p.m., Moravia Park.

National Haiku Contest
Deadline to enter poems Sept. 30. Info: 2232-1255, www.cr.emb-japan.go.jp.

Theater at Noon in Alajuela
Archipiélago, story theater, Sept. 30, 12:10 p.m., Juan Santamaría Museum, Alajuela.

2010 International Guitar Festival:
Freddy Pérez ( Cuba ), Diego Jasca and Ricardo Moyano ( Argentina ), Sept. 30, 8 p.m., at National Theater. Info: www.todoticketcr.com, www.festivalguitarracr.com.

The Ad Astra Rocket Company, founded in 2005 by Costa Rican astronaut and physicist Franklin Chang, announced Wednesday that it will become a limited public corporation, offering stock to investors willing to pay a minimum of $25,000.

Ad Astra Rocket Company, headquartered in Houston, Texas, also has a branch in Liberia, capital of Costa Rica's northwestern Guanacaste province.

“We expect investors of Ad Astra Rocket to be more sophisticated, knowledgeable investors who understand the stock market and the undertaking of larger investments,” said Oscar Luis Chaves, director of the economic consulting firm Aldesa, which is helping orchestrate Ad Astra's limited public offering. “It's not your normal investment. There aren't a lot of investors who have committed funds to a rocket company before.”

According to José Rafael Brenes, general manager of the Costa Rican National Stock Exchange, the possibility of investing in Ad Astra Rocket Company should be available within the next three weeks, with a tentative Oct. 12 release date set for the stock. In addition to Costa Ricans, investors from Panama and El Salvador will also have the opportunity to buy shares in the company. According to Chaves, Ad Astra seeks a boost of $85 million in private investments over the next four years. Currently, about 70 percent of the investment that fuels the Ad Astra Rocket Company comes from Costa Rican contributions (TT, Aug. 13).

The primary project of the Ad Astra Rocket Company is the plasma-powered variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMR). The VASIMIR works by using radio waves to ionize and heat a propellant and magnetic fields to accelerate the resulting plasma to generate thrust. The first mission of the VASIMR, designed by Chang, is to clean up the ever-growing problem of space trash. Satellites launched into outer space often lose power or stop functioning years after their launch. Though useless, they continue to orbit Earth's atmosphere, cluttering outer space and possibly causing collisions. The objective of Chang's VASIMR rocket, which is fueled by heated plasma instead of traditional fuel, is to rid outer space of these satellites, either by refueling them at the International Space Station or by bumping them into the atmosphere, where they will burn up.

“The enthusiasm of Costa Rica behind this project gives me a lot of confidence that investors will continue to want to be a part of supporting this mission,” Chang said Wednesday. “I am so proud to receive such support from my home country in financing the VASIMR and our mission to help solve the increasing problem of space junk.”

For more on this story, see the Oct. 1 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.

Heavy rains and mudslides forced both the Inter-American and Caldera highways to close Wednesday, pushing east-west traffic between the Central Valley and the Pacific coast onto the old road through Atenas, known as Monte del Aguacate.

The new Caldera Highway reported problems at Kilometer 47, which caused the closure of the highway between Orotina and Atenas. The Inter-American Highway was shut down one kilometer west of San Ramón, at the western end of the Central Valley.

Juan Carlos González, spokesman for the Public Works and Transport Ministry, said he couldn't predict when the highways will reopen.

“The Public Works and Transport Ministry and the Roadway Safety Council have intensified efforts to attend to the number of mudslides in recent hours,” read a statement issued by the ministry on Wednesday.

Other mountain roads forced to close Wednesday were Route 301 between Sabanilla de Acosta and Parrita; Route 239 between La Gloria de Puriscal and Parrita; Route 703 between San Ramón and Zarcero; Route 742 between San Ramón and Piedades Sur; Route 708 between Sarchí and Bajos del Toro; and Route 741 between Zarcero and Bajos del Toro.

Dr. Robert Muller, the co-founder and for many years chancellor of Costa Rica's University for Peace, and hailed by many as the “ Prophet of Hope, ” died Monday, Sept. 20, the eve of the International Day of Peace, at the age of 87. He was honored in a webcast memorial service Sept. 27.

Born in Belgium in 1923 and raised in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, Muller came of age in a turmoil-filled world.

Because of wars and constant border disputes before Muller was born, his family had changed nationalities four times without ever moving from home. As a child he gazed across the French-German border to the winding Rhine River, and wondered why he was unable to cross this imaginary line. After all, on the other side of the border lived people just like him – people who shared his customs and language.   

Muller fought with the French underground resistance movement during World War II and witnessed firsthand the horrors of violence and death. One night, after seeing 20 German prisoners slaughtered in a vicious act of revenge, he swore to devote the rest of his life to promoting peace.

From a young age, Muller understood that peace and education walk hand in hand. He earned a law doctorate from the University of Strasbourg, the largest university in France and one of the most prestigious in Europe.

Later, as the first-prize winner of an essay contest for French youth, Muller was offered an internship in the newly established United Nations in 1948. There, spending all of his time in an attempt to promote peace, he gained his colleagues' admiration and climbed the ranks to become undersecretary general of the U.N. He worked in the organization for 40 years.

The author of almost 30 books and the creator of the “world core curriculum,” Muller was the recipient of the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, the Albert Schweitzer International Prize for the Humanities and the Eleanor Roosevelt Man of Vision Award, and was named the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation world citizen honoree for 2002.  

In 1980, Muller cofounded with then Costa Rican President Rodrigo Carazo the University for Peace (UPEACE), the U.N.-mandated graduate school for peace studies in Ciudad Colón, Costa Rica. During the 2009-2010 academic year, UPEACE had more than 200 students from 57 countries, making it one of the most diverse campuses in the world for its size.

For more on this story, see the Oct. 1 print or digital edition of The Tico Times.