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.
“Lockheed”1 page
UNCLASSIFIED/;<F9A: 9FFICI1k MEii 911k¥ 1000 800 "'=.:;g 600 m E :.::. 400 □ Chemic"' (lsp=450 s) □ Nucl.,.,c thecm"I (lsp=900 s) t------ □ Fusion (1 kWlkgJ t------D Fusion (10 kW/kg) 200 i---- u .E t==,---------i - 0 I ~ LJ__L_J,==t:=il i Earth-Mars (29% payload) ~ 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 i---- 0 Earth-Mars (258 days) Figure 14. Comparison of Fusion, Nuclear-Thermal, and Chemical Propulsion for Same Payload. Chemical 0.01 kW.lkg 10' L_..l..':==~ 1 o·• 10·' 10 Thrust-to-weight ratio Figure 15. Thrust-to-Weight Ratio and Exhaust Velocity Regimes for Various Long-Range Space Propulsion Options. INTERSTELLAR The ability of fusion propulsion to carry payloads or travelers to a habitable star tens of light-years away will be limited by the amount of fusion fuel it can transport or gather along its route. A simple calculation of the amount of energy to move a space-shuttle- sized vehicle (100 Mg) to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, indicates a minimum amount of energy in the mass equivalent of 10 6 kg. However, in 1960 Robert Bussard proposed the use of magnetic fields to scoop interstellar hydrogen to fuel a fusion rocket to propel a spacecraft now know as the Bussard Ram Jet (shown in Figure 16). 20 Although interstellar hydrogen does not fuse, Bussard proposed the use of the stellar carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle in which carbon is used as a catalyst to burn hydrogen through the strong nuclear reaction. However, the size of the scoops and the fusion power required to maintain them makes this concept unlikely to be realized. 19 UNCLASSIFIED//F9A: 9EEICI0I llflii 0111 ¥
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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.