Defense Intelligence Reference Document Advanced Nuclear Propulsion For Manned Deep Space Missions

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As shown in Figure 13, the last capacitor of the Super Marx is a superconducting ring
with a large toroidal current. There the large azimuthal magnetic field set up by the
toroidal current magnetically insulates the ring against breakdown to the wall.
The load is the deuterium target shown in Figure 13. It consists of a solid deuterium rod
covered with a thin ablator placed inside a cylindrical hohlraum. To the le~ of the
hohlraum and the deuterium rod is a mini-rocket chamber filled with solid hydrogen.
The method of discharging the energy from the Blumlein transmission line to the target
then goes as follows (see Figure 13):
• A short laser pulse is projected into the mini-rocket chamber through a hole of an
electrode at the center of the ring.
• By heating the hydrogen in the mini-rocket chamber to a high temperature, a
supersonic hydrogen jet is emitted through the Laval nozzle toward the electrode at
the center of the ring, forming a bridge to the target.
• A second laser pulse then traces out an ionization trail inside the hydrogen jet,
facilitating an electric discharge to the target, with the space charge neutralizing
plasma pinching the proton beam down to a small diameter.
• • • • • I • • • • • •
Target
= lOm,, = 10
1 = lm,, = l
Proton Beam
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Figure 13. The Superconducting Toroidal Capacitor (a) and Its Discharge Dnto the Target (b)
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