Nuclear fusion rocket eingine

On 20 Feb, 20:22, BradGuth wrote:
On Feb 20, 11:55 am, Ian Parker wrote:





On 14 Feb, 22:13, "Jim Relsh" wrote:

http://wsx.lanl.gov/mtf.html

http://wsx.lanl.gov/MTF/mtf-pix/imag...atic-color.jpg

Looks like a candidate for a nuclear fusion rocket engine, I kid you not.

What would the ISP be of such an engine? 10.000 seconds or so? Could this
make cheap space travel with tiny spaceships a reality? You know like the
one in Aliens which is about as big as a helicopter yet is still able to go
into orbit.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

There is one question which spings to mind. If you are going for a
quasi inertial confinemenement, why not accelerate "warm" 250ev plasma
to high velocity and create shock waves. Could we make a kind of
scramjet out of thermonuclear material?

Plasma is, of course, extremely conducting and a linear induction
motor could accelerate it to high speed.

* - Ian Parker

Terrific idea, however our own Willie.Moo has already been there and
done that, of which means that no one else can even consider the
thought without his all-knowing expertise of how to best spend our
hard earned loot.

As you know I am in favor of a commercial edge. That is to say space
would not be primerally funded by the taxpayer. Mark R. Whittington
has posted on the space policies of the 3 realistic contenders for the
Presidency. Point is Barack Obama does not appear to be being punished
by the electorate for his negative attitude to manned space flight.
The fact that Hillary not him is suffering leads me to believe that
manned spaceflight SUPPORTED BY THE TAXPAYER must be regarded as a
thing of the past.

As I have stated earlier governments (all governments) are supporting
basic research. Thermonuclear fusion must come into this category at
the moment. These days a lot can be done by a finite element analysis.
My suggestion is that anyone investigating inertial fusion from a warm
plasma should at least put shockwaves and a continuous flow onto a
supercomputer or or posssibly just a network of 2GHz PCs.

Certainly if thermonuclear fusion could be made to work (as I said
only He3 can possibly give a continuous flow) the costings for manned
spaceflight would radically change. William Mook could go to Ceres,
but he would have to get the money from a merchant bank, not the
government. With a large demand for catalysts "Ceres Platinoids" could
be viable, as would space tourism.


- Ian Parker

On Feb 21, 3:26 am, Ian Parker wrote:
On 20 Feb, 20:22, BradGuth wrote:



On Feb 20, 11:55 am, Ian Parker wrote:

On 14 Feb, 22:13, "Jim Relsh" wrote:

http://wsx.lanl.gov/mtf.html

http://wsx.lanl.gov/MTF/mtf-pix/imag...atic-color.jpg

Looks like a candidate for a nuclear fusion rocket engine, I kid you not.

What would the ISP be of such an engine? 10.000 seconds or so? Could this
make cheap space travel with tiny spaceships a reality? You know like the
one in Aliens which is about as big as a helicopter yet is still able to go
into orbit.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

There is one question which spings to mind. If you are going for a
quasi inertial confinemenement, why not accelerate "warm" 250ev plasma
to high velocity and create shock waves. Could we make a kind of
scramjet out of thermonuclear material?

Plasma is, of course, extremely conducting and a linear induction
motor could accelerate it to high speed.

- Ian Parker

Terrific idea, however our own Willie.Moo has already been there and
done that, of which means that no one else can even consider the
thought without his all-knowing expertise of how to best spend our
hard earned loot.

As you know I am in favor of a commercial edge. That is to say space
would not be primerally funded by the taxpayer. Mark R. Whittington
has posted on the space policies of the 3 realistic contenders for the
Presidency. Point is Barack Obama does not appear to be being punished
by the electorate for his negative attitude to manned space flight.
The fact that Hillary not him is suffering leads me to believe that
manned spaceflight SUPPORTED BY THE TAXPAYER must be regarded as a
thing of the past.

I 100% agree, in that at best it should become a 50/50 thing.


As I have stated earlier governments (all governments) are supporting
basic research. Thermonuclear fusion must come into this category at
the moment. These days a lot can be done by a finite element analysis.
My suggestion is that anyone investigating inertial fusion from a warm
plasma should at least put shockwaves and a continuous flow onto a
supercomputer or or posssibly just a network of 2GHz PCs.

Our NASA has the newest and best supercomputer of 2048 fast CPUs, that
for the most part is just sitting around collecting dust. So, since
that's yet another 100% public owned, housed and operated tidbit of
nifty technology, having all the very best of software to boot, we
should just use a small portion of those extremely fast CPUs for doing
whatever's within the best public and environment interest.


Certainly if thermonuclear fusion could be made to work (as I said
only He3 can possibly give a continuous flow) the costings for manned
spaceflight would radically change. William Mook could go to Ceres,
but he would have to get the money from a merchant bank, not the
government. With a large demand for catalysts "Ceres Platinoids" could
be viable, as would space tourism.

- Ian Parker

I agree, that all-knowing wizards like our Willie.Moo could kick
serious nuclear, fusion and/or ion rocket butt, and get that deployed
and/or extended mission cost per tonne way the hell down without
further polluting mother Earth in the process. With the 50/50 public
matching funds worth of backing up whatever's privately invested
should more than do the trick, or we can just sit back and watch China
or even India do most everything.
.. - Brad Guth