Workable Fusion Starship Proposed

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Workable Fusion Starship Proposed

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday February 1, 2009 @03:31AM from the for-sufficiently-difficult-values-of-workable dept.

Adam Korbitz writes "A former colleague of Edward Teller — father of the hydrogen bomb — has published a new paper proposing a design for what could be the first practical fusion-powered spacecraft (PDF). As described at Centauri Dreams, the design has certain similarities to MagOrion, a 1990s-era proposal for a nuclear-powered spaceship with a magnetic sail and propelled by small-yield fission devices. The proposal's author also has links to the British Interplanetary Society's Project Daedalus, a 1970s proposal for an unmanned fusion-powered interstellar probe designed to reach 12% of the speed of light on its way to Barnard's Star."

15 of 260 comments (clear)

from the article.. by Silm · 2009-02-01 03:36 · Score: 5, Funny

a deuterium fusion bomb propulsion system is proposed where a thermonuclear detonation wave is ignited in a small cylindrical assembly of deuterium with a gigavolt-multimegampere proton beam,
that has to be right up there with back to the future. I mean, it has a frickin' gigavolt-multimegampere proton beam
1. Re:from the article.. by jimbo2150 · 2009-02-01 07:30 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I mean seriously folks, is it really too hard to ask for sharks with friggin' gigavolt-multimegampere proton beams strapped to their forehead?
2. Re:from the article.. by CarpetShark · 2009-02-01 11:39 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I mean, it has a frickin' gigavolt-multimegampere proton beam
  My car has multiple photon beams, powered by an engine generating up to 100000 volts many thousands of times per second. It's not as impressive as it sounds, though --- my torch has a photon beam too.
3. Re:from the article.. by MrKaos · 2009-02-02 02:31 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Gigawatt is incorrectly pronounced jiggawatt.
  
  Fixed that pronunciation fubar for you.
  
  But English is hard to pronounce with an English accent.
  
  --
  My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Re:Ramscoop design? by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-01 03:41 · Score: 3, Funny

I have designed a spaceship that uses a scoop to collect amazon affiliate codes.
It will be able to reach Barnards star in a matter of hours.
Re:Ramscoop design? by wjh31 · 2009-02-01 04:08 · Score: 3, Funny

ah yes, it would have helped if i had read the ramscoop wiki rather than reading the name and guessing what it meant
Such audacity.... by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-01 04:09 · Score: 1, Funny

It takes a lot of balls to travel several light years without a road-side service plan.
A great way to make contact with aliens . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2009-02-01 04:12 · Score: 3, Funny

. . . speeding through their neighborhood whilst "farting out a series of small fusion bombs."
They will come looking for us.
"Hey, Earthling, is this your flatulent spacecraft that fouled our air? We'd just like to return it to you, by chucking it at one of your major cities."

--
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Re:Emphasis on 'Workable Fusion' by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-01 04:17 · Score: 1, Funny

I thought we had workable fusion. It just needs a bit of fission to get started...
Re:To save time & skip the pdf by andereandre · 2009-02-01 04:20 · Score: 4, Funny

I have read the pdf. Looks good to me, could find no errors in the math, so make it so. Now back to watching pr0n.
Re:Great idea but pie in the sky... by xch13fx · 2009-02-01 04:54 · Score: 5, Funny

If anyone needs a colonist I was recently laid off. I can weld and swim well.(You swim to move in zero g right?).
Re:Kinda optimistic by DriedClexler · 2009-02-01 04:57 · Score: 4, Funny

Yeah, and what's worse, they can't even get acronyms right:

practical fusion-powered spacecraft (PDF).
That should be abbreviated as PFS or PFPS, not PDF.

--
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
Re:Great idea but pie in the sky... by BigFootApe · 2009-02-01 05:37 · Score: 3, Funny

Only in James Bond films.
Re:Great idea but pie in the sky... by wasmoke · 2009-02-01 11:43 · Score: 2, Funny

You forgot one: 5) PROFIT!
Re:Ramscoop design? by CarpetShark · 2009-02-01 11:46 · Score: 2, Funny

A Bussard type ramscoop rocket could only be expected to reach about 0.12c even with highly efficient engines.
Only 0.12c? Man, those things depreciate so fast.