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Page added on April 8, 2013
NASA-funded fusion rocket could shoot humans to Mars in 30 days
A research group at the University of Washington, funded by NASA, is about to build a fusion-powered rocket. This rocket, if it can be successfully built, could propel a manned spacecraft to Mars in just 30 days — compared to NASA’s estimate of four years for a Martian round trip using current technology.
The UW team, led by John Slough, have spent the last few years developing and testing each of the various stages of a fusion rocket. Now it is time to bring these isolated tests together to produce an actual fusion rocket. To succeed, Slough and co will need to create a fusion process that generates more power than it requires to get the fusion reaction started — a caveat that, despite billions of dollars of research, has eluded some of the world’s finest scientists for more than 60 years. Fusion is an ideal method of rocket propulsion, as fusion fuel has immense energy density — something on the scale of 7 million times more dense than conventional rocket fuel. The weight (and expense) of fuel is one of the biggest barriers to space travel.
A concept fusion rocket, on its way to Mars
The UW fusion rocket design is mechanically simple and also ingenious. In essence, there’s a pellet of deuterium-tritium (hydrogen isotopes; the usual fuel used with fusion), and some large metal rings made of lithium. When the pellet is in the right place, flowing through the combustion chamber towards the exhaust, a huge magnetic field is triggered, causing the metal rings to slam closed around the pellet of fuel. These rings then implode with such pressure that the fuel compresses into fusion — much in the same way that a car compresses diesel into combustion. The fusion causes a massive explosion, ejecting the metal rings out of the rocket at 67,000 mph (108,000 kmh), generating thrust. This reaction would be repeated every 10 seconds, eventually accelerating the rocket to somewhere around 200,000 miles per hour — about 10 times the speed of Curiosity as it hurtled through space from Earth to Mars.
That’s the theory, anyway. So far, as far as we can tell, the scientists haven’t actually created fusion yet; they’ve tested the imploding metal rings, but they haven’t inserted the deuterium-tritium fuel and propelled a super-heated ionized lump of metal at 67,000 mph out the back of a rocket. That’s the next and very large step.
To be considered a success, the UW fusion rocket must fulfill two criteria: It must work reliably, and it must be capable of generating more thermal energy than the electrical energy required to start the fusion reaction. It is this second factor that has so far proved impossible to fulfill, despite dozens of attempts and billions of research and development dollars. Basically, it’s easy enough to start a fusion reaction — you just need a very strong magnetic field, lasers, or a nuclear bomb — but it’s very hard to continue the reaction after that. Fusion releases a vast amount of thermal energy — but you need to be able to convert enough of that thermal energy into electrical energy, to continue the reaction.
The target chamber at the National Igniftion Facility, where 192 lasers combine to create fusion
Currently our best hopes for sustainable fusion are the ITER — a $20 billion fusion reactor project backed by most of the world’s big players — and California’s National Ignition Facility (pictured above). It isn’t entirely clear how the University of Washington design allows for continuous fusion, but presumably they do have a plan. You shouldn’t get your hopes up, though: Almost everyone agrees that sustainable fusion power is still at least 20 years away — and might always be. Here’s hoping, though: Unless we come up with a faster method of space travel, it’ll take us around 200,000 years to reach the nearest Earth-like planet.
11 Comments on "NASA-funded fusion rocket could shoot humans to Mars in 30 days"
Arthur on Mon, 8th Apr 2013 10:56 pm
“NASA-funded fusion rocket could shoot humans to Mars in 30 days”
Scotty could beam people up in a matter of seconds and safely put them on the surface of any planet you can think of.
Lampert Scratch on Mon, 8th Apr 2013 11:46 pm
I’m probably missing something here, but isn’t it a physical impossibility, defying the laws of thermodynamics, to produce more energy from less energy? Isn’t this something akin to perpetual motion? And I love the splashy headline that implies we’re goin to Mars in a month!
rollin on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 1:54 am
Lampert, it’s how the sun works. E=mc2.
This rocket must have huge batteries or capacitors to start the thing. I can see them pulling over a flying saucer and asking for a jumpstart.
Why go to Mars in the first place? Nothing worthwhile has been reported by all the satllites we have sent and the little rovers. What does Mars have that is worth 100 billion dollars to get some people on and hopefully off Mars?
I know, they are going to drill for oil. Now it makes sense.
BillT on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 2:15 am
‘Extreme Delusion’ is the proper name for their site. We are never going back into space unless it is by blowing up the planet. China and Russia are still thinking about it, but the West is barely surviving the economic meltdown.
Techies sure must have a great supply of whatever they are smoking…lol.
Beery on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 3:42 am
Yeah, what are these people smoking?
Norm on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 7:06 am
Gut feel, this one isn’t gonna work. I’m not a gloom & doomer….
I call them ‘the rasoichers’.
We iz doin da rasoich, pally. We iz doin da govamint rasoich. We iz da rasoichers. If youze dont like ourz rasoichin, youze will be wearin da cement ovashoes.
Arthur on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 7:39 am
Proposed strategy for finding life on Mars by Dutch scientists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP6gbxskEuw
Seriously, manned space travel has no future whatsoever in this century. There will be a few more flights to the ISS and then they will let the structure evaporate in the atmosphere.
Maybe in hundred years time when the energy situation has bottomed out… if that happens.
Bor on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 1:41 pm
Pure, grandiose and costly BS.
The controled fusion is not achieve yet (Will it ever be achieved?…). But those dreamers of NASA has already funded a rocket? Sheer idiocy indeed.
Arthur on Tue, 9th Apr 2013 2:16 pm
The last shuttle flight was july 2011. This could very well be the last manned space flight the US will ever undertake. The Russians and their ‘outdated’ Sojuz are the only ones able to bring a human payload to the ISS.
Wikipedia: “The period between the retirement of the shuttle and the initial operational capability of new systems, similar to the gap between the end of Apollo and the first space shuttle flight, is referred to as the U.S. human spaceflight gap.”
Considering the deficits it is likely that the ‘spaceflight gap’ will last rather long.
In 1970 Andrei Amalrik once wrote a book “Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?”. He was 7 years wrong.
Pat Buchanan wrote a book in 2011 “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”
Like Amalrik, Buchanan gives his country 14 years. Adding 7 kicking the can years, that would make for 2032. NASA should get it’s act together quickly and design something new before it is too late.
Meanwhile the Russians seem to be the most active:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/
The EU is mainly busy with Galileo, the US largely with military satellites.
Thaddeus Erato on Sat, 13th Apr 2013 9:23 pm
Where do you people come from? First of all, there will beup to 3 U.S. commercial routes to low earth orbit in three years – from Boing,SpaceX,and Sierra Nevada.All are already in advanced development. Next,the person who wrote this article does not understand that breakeven energy is not required from any kind of space propulsion. He’s got that confused with commercial energy producing reactors. Also, unlike prior proposals for fusion rockets,this one does not convert thermal energy to electricity. The ionized Lithium is ejected directly from the rocket for propulsion. Maybe you guys should just stay in your basements, watching Fox News and cleaning your guns while waiting for the end of the world. Leave the future to others with some guts and vision.
Thaddeus Erato on Sat, 13th Apr 2013 10:11 pm
In addition, the author says it is “unclear” how this system provides for “continuous fusion.” It doesn’t. Think of it as a sequence of miniature thermonuclear explosions, kind of like the old Orion project.