Workable Fusion Starship Proposed 260
Adam Korbitz writes "A former colleague of Edward Teller — father of the hydrogen bomb — has published a new paper proposing a design for what could be the first practical fusion-powered spacecraft (PDF). As described at Centauri Dreams, the design has certain similarities to MagOrion, a 1990s-era proposal for a nuclear-powered spaceship with a magnetic sail and propelled by small-yield fission devices. The proposal's author also has links to the British Interplanetary Society's Project Daedalus, a 1970s proposal for an unmanned fusion-powered interstellar probe designed to reach 12% of the speed of light on its way to Barnard's Star."
from the article.. (Score:5, Funny)
a deuterium fusion bomb propulsion system is proposed where a thermonuclear detonation wave is ignited in a small cylindrical assembly of deuterium with a gigavolt-multimegampere proton beam,
that has to be right up there with back to the future. I mean, it has a frickin' gigavolt-multimegampere proton beam
Re:Ramscoop design? (Score:3, Funny)
I have designed a spaceship that uses a scoop to collect amazon affiliate codes.
It will be able to reach Barnards star in a matter of hours.
Re:Ramscoop design? (Score:4, Funny)
Such audacity.... (Score:1, Funny)
It takes a lot of balls [wikimedia.org] to travel several light years without a road-side service plan.
A great way to make contact with aliens . . . (Score:4, Funny)
. . . speeding through their neighborhood whilst "farting out a series of small fusion bombs."
They will come looking for us.
"Hey, Earthling, is this your flatulent spacecraft that fouled our air? We'd just like to return it to you, by chucking it at one of your major cities."
Re:Emphasis on 'Workable Fusion' (Score:1, Funny)
Re:To save time & skip the pdf (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Great idea but pie in the sky... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Kinda optimistic (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, and what's worse, they can't even get acronyms right:
practical fusion-powered spacecraft (PDF).
That should be abbreviated as PFS or PFPS, not PDF.
Re:Great idea but pie in the sky... (Score:4, Funny)
Only in James Bond films.
Re:from the article.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:from the article.. (Score:3, Funny)
My car has multiple photon beams, powered by an engine generating up to 100000 volts many thousands of times per second. It's not as impressive as it sounds, though --- my torch has a photon beam too.
Re:Great idea but pie in the sky... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ramscoop design? (Score:3, Funny)
Only 0.12c? Man, those things depreciate so fast.
Re:from the article.. (Score:3, Funny)
But English is hard to pronounce with an English accent.