John Slough Preparing First Nuclear Fusion Tests for the End of this Summer
Last May, John Slough and his team from MSNW presented their mission analysis for a trip to Mars at a NASA symposium. Slough and his team have published papers discussing the potential for fusion-powered rockets to make future Mars expeditions more practical and less costly. Through successful lab tests, Slough has demonstrated the feasibility of all portions of the process. From the article:
“To power a rocket, the team has devised a system in which a powerful magnetic field causes large metal rings to implode around this plasma, compressing it to a fusion state. The converging rings merge to form a shell that ignites the fusion, but only for a few microseconds. Even though the compression time is very short, enough energy is released from the fusion reactions to quickly heat and ionize the shell. This super-heated, ionized metal is ejected out of the rocket nozzle at a high velocity. This process is repeated every minute or so, propelling the spacecraft.
The mechanical process and equipment used are reasonably straightforward, which Slough said supports their design working in space. “Anything you put in space has to function in a fairly simple manner,” he said. “You can extrapolate this technology to something usable in space.”
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