500,000 mph Fusion Rocket - Earth to Mars in 2 weeks?

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Interesting tech news in the world of rocketry.



Pulsar Fusion plans 500,000 mph nuclear rocket
11 Jul 2023

Ambitious UK aerospace company Pulsar Fusion has revealed plans to build a nuclear fusion rocket engine capable of producing temperatures hotter than the Sun.

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/media/hw4gjv41/pulsar.png?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=800&height=450&bgcolor=White&format=webp&quality=80&rnd=133335429288670000

The rocket’s eight-metre fusion chamber is currently being assembled in Bletchley, England. Its design has been informed by the success of the Princeton field-reversed configuration (PFRC) fusion programme, combined with AI and machine learning to optimise the magnetic fields required to confine the fusion plasma and power the rocket engine.


https://vimeo.com/761098408

“The difficulty is learning how to hold and confine the super-hot plasma within an electromagnetic field,” said Dr James Lambert, CFO of Pulsar Fusion. “The plasma behaves like a weather system in terms of being incredibly hard to predict using conventional techniques.

“Scientists have not been able to control the turbulent plasma as it is heated to hundreds of millions of degrees and the reaction simply stops. This unpredictability is attributed to the science Magneto-Hydro Dynamics (MHD) and Gyrokinetics, the state of the plasma is changing all the time.

“Our current satellite engines we make today at Pulsar, produce up to 25 miles per second in exhaust speeds. We hope to achieve over 10 times that with fusion,” said Pulsar CEO, Dinan. “If the Pulsar rocket test can achieve fusion temperatures at its demonstration to aerospace partners in 2027, then the technology has the potential to half mission times to Mars, reduce flight time to Saturn from eight years to two and ultimately empower humanity to leave our solar system.

“We will be keeping our existing partners up to date at every step even as we begin early firings in 2025, we will be able to know if we are on the right track. Pulsar would then need to conduct a test firing in orbit. To the fusion community, AI truly does have the potential to allow us to achieve engines capable of interstellar space travel.”

More: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/pulsar-fusion-plans-500-000-mph-nuclear-rocket-1/

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

***
Pulsar Fusion update!! A small startup in the UK is about to revolutionize spaceflight with the help of some formidable partners! But how can this humble company carry out an orbital demonstration of fusion propulsion in only four years?

Update!! Direct Fusion Drive will debut in 2027!! Earth to Mars in 12 days!
Starts 2.30
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[Ewan]

Interesting tech news in the world of rocketry.


“The difficulty is learning how to hold and confine the super-hot plasma within an electromagnetic field,” said Dr James Lambert, CFO of Pulsar Fusion. “The plasma behaves like a weather system in terms of being incredibly hard to predict using conventional techniques.

“Scientists have not been able to control the turbulent plasma as it is heated to hundreds of millions of degrees and the reaction simply stops.



Interesting, but sorry Mark, you may call me...
... a skeptic but the above isolated sentence seems to be a familiar trope in a broader perspective, as in.... we've seen these stories before and then they just disappear.

They can't control, or maintain with certainty, the current power levels and hope to increase by x10?

[Ernie Nemeth]

They are doing a similar experiment I saw a video about. In fact, it looks almost identical to the rocket engine above. The one I saw the object was to achieve fusion and maintain it, with the end goal of over unity electrical output. They accelerated particles to close to the speed of light, from both ends, and made them collide in the center - to 'ignite' the fusion cascade. Then they fiddled with the magnetic containment to keep the reaction going, I believe, for over a few seconds.

So accelerating particles in one direction over that distance can easily speed them up to near light speeds. That can deliver quite a massive acceleration in the other direction. I think it is quite feasible.

It's all about timing and switching speeds, which means extremely accurate clocks(timing circuits) and very fast switches (with high amp ratings) to match the timing. One other thing needed is super massive capacitors that can discharge massive amounts of power in the pico-second range, again matching the timing speed. That's tricky, and they do not last many firings(cycles).