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This Defense Intelligence Agency reference document, dated 1 November 2010, is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2010 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It covers fusion plasma physics, confinement methods, and propulsion concepts that use aneutronic fuels such as hydrogen and boron-11. It concludes that such thrusters may soon replace satellite ion thrusters. It also finds that they will not be practical beyond the solar system without breakthrough propulsion physics.
UNCLASSIFIED//F81il 8FFI1il.t.k Wfili 8Hklf ThermoeJectric Converter/Shield 11agne1:ic L ✓-' Fiel::I Coils. loo tnjector #1 IA!!!_., SepaiilatfU. Thrust l;;..,..._..,..:os,~~~4\ ------...._~------------- ----~----------~- - ·#.,::=r~--t_. ·;;;J] 1&!!1-ic-Field• 11agne1-, Ion Injector 12 Reversed Cose Nozzle Figure 9. Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor [Cheung et al. 2004] Dense Plasma Focus Reactors The Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) designs that operate at extremely high plasma pressure because of the intense electrostatic pulse have been evaluated for (p,B 11 )-fueled propulsion systems. A parametric analysis by Knecht 12 has shown that a system of 16 to 24 Mg can produce 400-900 MW of power with thrusts of 500-1000 kN at lsp of 1,500-2,000 seconds. More detailed analyses of this design indicate that for a 16-Mg system using direct energy conversion coils at the thruster nozzle, (Figure 10) producing an lsp of about 1300 seconds at 800 MW could generate about 1000 kN of thrust. 13 This system is continuously fueled with H2 and boron gas, and the electrodes are pulsed at a 10-Hz rate or higher with the > 100 keV plasma fusion products and unfused fuel expelled to provide thrust after passing through a direct-energy converter cooled by a separate H2 coolant that is also expelled in the plasma stream. Magneto- Inertial Confinement Reactors The concept of magnetized target fusion using field-reversed configuration plasmoids has been tested. 14 A high-density compressed plasmoid is formed by a staged axial and radial compression of two colliding/merging FRC plasmas where the energy that is required for the implosion compression and heating of the magnetized target plasmoid is stored in the kinetic energy of the plasmas used to compress it. The confinement properties are expected to achieve ignition for aneutronic fuels and may lead to the smaller reactor mass for propulsion of 20 Mg producing 300 MW (shown in Figure 11). Hydrogen Focus I Figure 10. DPF Thruster System with Direct Conversion UNCLASSIFIED/;«F81il 8PPI@Itllt ~!H! Slit I 12
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 36 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.