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Fusion Rocket Could Take Us To Mars
New submitter imikem writes "University of Washington researchers and scientists at a Redmond-based space-propulsion company are building components of a fusion-powered rocket aimed to clear many of the hurdles that block deep space travel, including long times in transit, exorbitant costs and health risks. 'Using existing rocket fuels, it's nearly impossible for humans to explore much beyond Earth,' said lead researcher John Slough, a UW research associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics. 'We are hoping to give us a much more powerful source of energy in space that could eventually lead to making interplanetary travel commonplace.' 'The research team has developed a type of plasma that is encased in its own magnetic field. Nuclear fusion occurs when this plasma is compressed to high pressure with a magnetic field. The team has successfully tested this technique in the lab. Only a small amount of fusion is needed to power a rocket – a small grain of sand of this material has the same energy content as 1 gallon of rocket fuel.'"
And if the fuels take more energy to prepare than they yield when reacted(tritium is one such fuel), then they're not very useful for energy production, but very useful for energy storage.
There are a few small details to deal with regarding both potential technologies.
Except we know how to create uncontrolled fusion, and a fusion rocket is closer to a hydrogen bomb than a fusion reactor. You're just trying to make fusion happen and throw the resulting plasma out the back, not keep the plasma in one place and generate power from it.
We've had nuclear fusion working for over sixty years now. The trick has been containing it in a reactor for power generation. A fusion rocket might be easier to pull off--that's essentially just a semi-contained and directed H-bomb.
This. It's all about specific impulse in space travel - which is a very separate concept to net energy production. There's no problem spending a lot of energy making rocket fuels on Earth, when the big cost multiplier is launch mass.
Lets not forget that the objective of the rocket is to move you, not generate usable energy. You don't necessarily have to have a net+ for this to be useful.
Think of it as a super high density fuel that just takes a lot of energy on the ground to process.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...