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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.
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shorter trips to the stars. Figure 14 shows how much time is required for the trip (one
way) based on the required acceleration. These equations are independent of the
specific impulse of the rocket. The mission cannot be less than 4.22 years in duration,
since the spacecraft cannot exceed the speed of light. If a 10-year mission were
chosen, the fuel usage would be tremendous, but the vehicle could attain an
acceleration of 0.20 g. At this acceleration, time on the rocket would pass at 72% of
the rate of time on Earth.
To predict the amount of fuel required for the ideal fusion drive, the Bussard Aneutronic
Propulsion system, weighing 14 tons, is assumed to be coupled to a craft the same
mass as the International Space Station. By assuming a very gradual acceleration of
0.001 g, the trip will take about 127 years attaining a maximum velocity of 6.5% of the
speed of light. Even at this modest acceleration, 85% of the initial mass of the
spacecraft will have to be fuel/propellant. The Mathcad spreadsheet used to predict
these values is included in Appendix D as the "Relativistic Rocket Worksheet." Figure
15 shows the opening page of the worksheet. Any text in red can be modified to
predict performance with different drives, vehicle mass, or distance traveled.
Relatlvlstlc Rocket calculator
Values ,n Red May be Changed by lhe Use, Maximum Velocity as a Function of Fuel Consumption
s Def,ne the M,» or lhe Ruckel and the Eng,ne
( Payload Mass 37C,:>:>:> (kg)
' Eng,ne and Fuel Mass '.2,7~~ (kg)
s Total Rocket Ma« 182700 (kg)
B. Def,ne the lpec,f,c Impulse of the Ea~,ne
( 'ipec,f,c Impulse 3639_'3 ~31 Isl
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( Dehno the D"tance to the 5tar
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' D;stance 3 9924bE+l6 (a(
C Def, no the Ma" mum Accolerat,on
( AcceleraMn/g ,1 ~(JI 01 02 o, Della-V 19768174,9 Im/,)
' Mass Rat,o {f; aal/;n,fol) I 74E-I{){)
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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.