Documents / Report
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.
Magnetic Expansion Chamber UNCLASSIFIED//F81il 8FFI1il.t.k Wfili 8Hklf BURN CHAMBER I Fuel Beam I I I I m Figure 11. Magnetized Target Fusion Reactor AIR PROPULSION The reactor propulsion concepts described in the previous section were limited to space propulsion. The DPF reactor is the lightest concept at 16 Mg (16 metric tons) and could produce 800 MW of power with thrust levels of 1000 kN for space propulsion through ejection of high-energy ions. The application of this fusion reactor for propelling aircraft from ground to hypersonic speeds would be very difficult since converting the 800 MW of power to propellant thrust through a thermodynamically driven gas turbine would provide lSN/MW or 1.53 kg of force per MW, which is only 1,224 kg of thrust for lifting a 16,000 kg vehicle. The thrust per kilogram of reactor weight would have to go up a factor of 50 to 100 in order to lift the reactor and the aircraft it is powering. The assistance of conventional rocket technology plus air-breathing magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)-assisted propulsion to augment aneutronic fusion plasma propulsion has been studied as depicted in Figure 12. In this concept, rocket- and turbine-based combined-cycle air-breathing engines are used for accelerating the vehicle to Mach 14. 15 MHD power generation is used during Mach 7-14 air-breathing flight because it may produce hundreds of megawatts of electrical power for DPF fusion rocket system ignition. The DPF fusion rocket system could then provide additional propulsion, power, and acceleration outside the atmosphere at speeds above the Mach 14 air-breathing MHD threshold. A thrust-vectoring chemical rocket system provides additional thrust and control any time during vehicle flight. • A neutronic fusion power and rocket propulsion from Mach 14 to orbit • Air-breathing propulsion and MHD power from Mach 7 to Mach 14 Propellants: Liquid Hydrogen; Liquid Oxygen (or Liquified Air) • 2025 time period Figure 12. MHD Air-Breathing and Fusion Rocket Aerospace Plane UNCLASSIFIED//F81il 8FFI@Itllt tl31!! OICLI 13
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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.