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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 1 November 2010, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It surveys propulsion technologies that include chemical, ion, and nuclear fission rockets, fusion schemes, aneutronic fusion, and antimatter propulsion. It also covers radiation shielding and speculates on research needs over the next 30 years for missions from low Earth orbit to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Alpha Centauri. The document concludes that aneutronic fusion promises to be an important mechanism for future space propulsion.
“Anderson”1 page
23 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'-F8A: QEEICIOI l!SF ONI X heat and particles are collected by an electron beam generator that heats hydrogen. The hydrogen is used as a propellant gas that is exhausted through a Laval nozzle to generate thrust. The Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor is a proven technology that is used in tabletop experiments to demonstrate nuclear fusion. This device is an example of inertial electrostatic confinement (ICF). Scaling this device up to production of ions for a propulsion system is a major task for EMC2 and Dr. Bussard. P,opellant Tank ( I ID• He J oc Bl li F-H.-.di,.....,,. Figure 11. QED Rocket Design by Dr. Robert Bussard and EMC2. 2. ESA Advanced Concepts Team The European Space Agency (ESA), an international research consortium, has assembled their Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) to develop space propulsion systems based on nuclear fusion in open magnetic confinement. This system, an example of magnetic confinement fusion, uses gas dynamic mirrors (GDM) to constrain an ion plasma. 3. JPL, Rocketdyne, Rockwell Design of an inertial confinement fusion source for manned missions to Mars was conducted for this joint project where a magnetic thrust chamber was to be used to minimize contact between the plasma and the walls of the thrust chamber. With a 100-ton payload and a total vehicle launch mass of 6,000 tons, this spacecraft would deliver manned missions to Mars in 100 days. UNCLASSIFIED/ }EQA: QFFIQJOk WE!iii Qllk>t
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 50 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.