Fusion Rocket: A Step Closer to Send Humans to Mars

By Fouad Sabry

What Is Fusion Rocket

The concept of a fusion rocket refers to a theoretical design for a rocket that would be powered by fusion propulsion. Such a rocket would be able to offer effective and continuous acceleration in space without the need to carry a significant amount of fuel. The concept calls for fusion power technology that is beyond the capability of today's systems, as well as rockets that are far bigger and more sophisticated.

How You Will Benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Fusion rocket

Chapter 2: Interstellar travel

Chapter 3: Interplanetary spaceflight

Chapter 4: Spacecraft propulsion

Chapter 5: Nuclear thermal rocket

Chapter 6: Gaseous fission reactor

Chapter 7: Nuclear salt-water rocket

Chapter 8: Bussard ramjet

Chapter 9: Antimatter rocket

Chapter 10: Nuclear pulse propulsion

Chapter 11: Antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion

Chapter 12: Robert W. Bussard

Chapter 13: Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)

Chapter 14: Nuclear propulsion

Chapter 15: Project Daedalus

Chapter 16: Project Longshot

Chapter 17: Interstellar probe

Chapter 18: Spacecraft electric propulsion

Chapter 19: Project Valkyrie

Chapter 20: Gas core reactor rocket

Chapter 21: Direct Fusion Drive

(II) Answering the public top questions about fusion rocket.

(III) Real world examples for the usage of fusion rocket in many fields.

(IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of fusion rocket' technologies.

Who This Book Is For

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of fusion rocket.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Oct 25, 2022

Book preview

Copyright

Fusion Rocket Copyright © 2022 by Fouad Sabry. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Cover designed by Fouad Sabry.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Bonus

You can send an email to [e-mail] with the subject line Fusion Rocket: A step closer to send humans to Mars, and you will receive an email which contains the first few chapters of this book.

Fouad Sabry

Visit 1BK website at

www.1BKOfficial.org

Preface

Why did I write this book?

The story of writing this book started on 1989, when I was a student in the Secondary School of Advanced Students.

It is remarkably like the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Schools, which are now available in many advanced countries.

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. This term is typically used to address an education policy or a curriculum choice in schools. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns and immigration policy.

There was a weekly class in the library, where each student is free to choose any book and read for 1 hour. The objective of the class is to encourage the students to read subjects other than the educational curriculum.

In the library, while I was looking at the books on the shelves, I noticed huge books, total of 5,000 pages in 5 parts. The books name is The Encyclopedia of Technology, which describes everything around us, from absolute zero to semiconductors, almost every technology, at that time, was explained with colorful illustrations and simple words. I started to read the encyclopedia, and of course, I was not able to finish it in the 1-hour weekly class.

So, I convinced my father to buy the encyclopedia. My father bought all the technology tools for me in the beginning of my life, the first computer and the first technology encyclopedia, and both have a great impact on myself and my career.

I have finished the entire encyclopedia in the same summer vacation of this year, and then I started to see how the universe works and to how to apply that knowledge to everyday problems.

My passion to the technology started mor than 30 years ago and still the journey goes on.

This book is part of The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies which is my attempt to give the readers the same amazing experience I had when I was in high school, but instead of 20th century technologies, I am more interested in the 21st century emerging technologies, applications, and industry solutions.

The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies will consist of 365 books, each book will be focused on one single emerging technology. You can read the list of emerging technologies and their categorization by industry in the part of Coming Soon, at the end of the book.

365 books to give the readers the chance to increase their knowledge on one single emerging technology every day within the course of one year period.

Introduction

How did I write this book?

In every book of The Encyclopedia of Emerging Technologies, I am trying to get instant, raw search insights, direct from the minds of the people, trying to answer their questions about the emerging technology.

There are 3 billion Google searches every day, and 20% of those have never been seen before. They are like a direct line to the people thoughts.

Sometimes that’s ‘How do I remove paper jam’. Other times, it is the wrenching fears and secret hankerings they would only ever dare share with Google.

In my pursuit to discover an untapped goldmine of content ideas about Fusion Rocket, I use many tools to listen into autocomplete data from search engines like Google, then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question, the people are asking around the keyword Fusion Rocket.

It is a goldmine of people insight, I can use to create fresh, ultra-useful content, products, and services. The kind people, like you, really want.

People searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche. Therefore, this book is a live product, and constantly updated by more and more answers for new questions about Fusion Rocket, asked by people, just like you and me, wondering about this new emerging technology and would like to know more about it.

The approach for writing this book is to get a deeper level of understanding of how people search around Fusion Rocket, revealing questions and queries which I would not necessarily think off the top of my head, and answering these questions in super easy and digestible words, and to navigate the book around in a straightforward way.

So, when it comes to writing this book, I have ensured that it is as optimized and targeted as possible. This book purpose is helping the people to further understand and grow their knowledge about Fusion Rocket. I am trying to answer people’s questions as closely as possible and showing a lot more.

It is a fantastic, and beautiful way to explore questions and problems that the people have and answer them directly, and add insight, validation, and creativity to the content of the book – even pitches and proposals. The book uncovers rich, less crowded, and sometimes surprising areas of research demand I would not otherwise reach. There is no doubt that, it is expected to increase the knowledge of the potential readers’ minds, after reading the book using this approach.

I have applied a unique approach to make the content of this book always fresh. This approach depends on listening to the people minds, by using the search listening tools. This approach helped me to:

Meet the readers exactly where they are, so I can create relevant content that strikes a chord and drives more understanding to the topic.

Keep my finger firmly on the pulse, so I can get updates when people talk about this emerging technology in new ways, and monitor trends over time.

Uncover hidden treasures of questions need answers about the emerging technology to discover unexpected insights and hidden niches that boost the relevancy of the content and give it a winning edge.

The building block for writing this book include the following:

(1) I have stopped wasting the time on gutfeel and guesswork about the content wanted by the readers, filled the book content with what the people need and said goodbye to the endless content ideas based on speculations.

(2) I have made solid decisions, and taken fewer risks, to get front row seats to what people want to read and want to know — in real time — and use search data to make bold decisions, about which topics to include and which topics to exclude.

(3) I have streamlined my content production to identify content ideas without manually having to sift through individual opinions to save days and even weeks of time.

It is wonderful to help the people to increase their knowledge in a straightforward way by just answering their questions.

I think the approach of writing of this book is unique as it collates, and tracks the important questions being asked by the readers on search engines.

Acknowledgments

Writing a book is harder than I thought and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. None of this would have been possible without the work completed by prestigious researchers, and I would like to acknowledge their efforts to increase the knowledge of the public about this emerging technology.

Dedication

To the enlightened, the ones who see things differently, and want the world to be better -- they are not fond of the status quo or the existing state. You can disagree with them too much, and you can argue with them even more, but you cannot ignore them, and you cannot underestimate them, because they always change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones or amateur, others see genius and innovators, because the ones who are enlightened enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do, and lead the people to the enlightenment.

Epigraph

The concept of a fusion rocket refers to a theoretical design for a rocket that would be powered by fusion propulsion. Such a rocket would be able to offer effective and continuous acceleration in space without the need to carry a significant amount of fuel. The concept calls for fusion power technology that is beyond the capability of today's systems, as well as rockets that are far bigger and more sophisticated.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Bonus

Preface

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Epigraph

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Fusion rocket

Chapter 2: Interstellar travel

Chapter 3: Interplanetary spaceflight

Chapter 4: Spacecraft propulsion

Chapter 5: Nuclear thermal rocket

Chapter 6: Gaseous fission reactor

Chapter 7: Nuclear salt-water rocket

Chapter 8: Bussard ramjet

Chapter 9: Antimatter rocket

Chapter 10: Nuclear pulse propulsion

Chapter 11: Antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion

Chapter 12: Robert W. Bussard

Chapter 13: Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)

Chapter 14: Nuclear propulsion

Chapter 15: Project Daedalus

Chapter 16: Project Longshot

Chapter 17: Interstellar probe

Chapter 18: Spacecraft electric propulsion

Chapter 19: Project Valkyrie

Chapter 20: Gas core reactor rocket

Chapter 21: Direct Fusion Drive

Epilogue

About the Author

Coming Soon

Appendices: Emerging Technologies in Each Industry

Chapter 1: Fusion rocket

The concept of a fusion rocket refers to a theoretical design for a rocket that would be powered by fusion propulsion. Such a rocket would be able to offer effective and continuous acceleration in space without the need to carry a significant amount of fuel. The concept calls for fusion power technology that is beyond the capability of today's systems, as well as rockets that are far bigger and more sophisticated.

Fusion nuclear pulse propulsion is one method that may be used to create propulsion utilizing energy derived from nuclear fusion.

The very high specific impulse offered by fusion is the primary benefit of this process, while the (presumably) huge bulk of the reactor is the primary drawback. There is a possibility that a fusion rocket may create less radiation than a fission rocket, which will result in a reduction in the amount of shielding mass required. The use of hydrogen bombs, as suggested in Project Orion, is the most reliable method for manufacturing a fusion rocket; however, such a spaceship would be very large, and the use of such weapons is prohibited under the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Because of this, the use of rockets powered by bombs would most likely be restricted to the confines of space. Instead of using direct drive, an alternative method employs the utilization of electrical propulsion (such as ion propulsion) using electric power created via fusion.

Ion thrusters and other kinds of propulsion for spacecraft are very effective, but their operation necessitates the use of electric power. The quantity of power that can be created in certain circumstances is the limiting factor in the amount of thrust that can be produced (for example, a mass driver). Such a vessel may be propelled by an electric generator that is powered by fusion energy. One of the drawbacks is that traditional methods of electricity generation need for a low-temperature energy sink, which is challenging (in the sense that it is heavy) to implement in a spaceship. This issue may be partially resolved by the direct transformation of the kinetic energy contained in the products of fusion into electrical energy.

The exhaust from the fusion reaction might be sent out the rear of the rocket to create propulsion without the need for the intermediary generation of energy. This is an intriguing idea. This would be far simpler to do with some types of confinement systems, such as magnetic mirrors, than it would be with others (e.g. tokamaks). Additionally, it is more appealing for the use of advanced fuels (see aneutronic fusion). In helium-3 propulsion, the fusion of helium-3 atoms would serve as the primary source of energy. In a reactor, helium-3, an isotope of helium that has two protons and one neutron, might be fused with deuterium to produce more stable forms of the element. The release of energy that occurs as a consequence has the potential to force propellant out the spacecraft's rear hatch. The abundance of helium-3 on the moon is the primary motivation behind the idea of using it as a fuel for spacecraft. According to estimates made by scientists, there is about one million tons of helium-3 that is accessible on the moon. Only 20% of the power generated by the D-T reaction could be employed in this manner; the other 80% of the power is released as neutrons, which cannot be directed by magnetic fields or solid walls and hence would be difficult to direct towards propulsion. Beta decay of tritium, which itself may be created from deuterium, lithium, or boron, is the process that leads to the formation of helium-3.

Even if a fusion reaction that can maintain itself cannot be constructed, it is still conceivable to utilize fusion to improve the performance of another propulsion system, such as a VASIMR engine. This could be done even in the event that self-sustaining fusion cannot be developed.

Plasma has to be contained in order for there to be a sustained fusion process. The tokamak, which is a kind of magnetic confinement fusion, is the configuration for terrestrial fusion that has received the greatest research attention. Since tokamaks, as they are now constructed, have a very high weight, the ratio of thrust to weight would seem to be unsatisfactory. The Discovery II speculative vehicle design was conceived by NASA's Glenn Research Center, and one of its ideas was to use a tiny aspect ratio spherical torus reactor. Discovery II could deliver a crewed 172-metric-ton payload to Jupiter in 118 days (or 212 days to Saturn) using 861-metric tons of hydrogen propellant, in addition to 11-metric tons of helium-3-deuterium (D-He3) fusion fuel. Jupiter could be reached in 118 days, and Saturn could be reached in 212 days. Hydrogen is heated up by the fusion plasma debris, which results in an increase in thrust at the expense of a decrease in exhaust velocity (between 348 and 463 kilometers per hour) and, thus, an increase in propellant mass.

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the most prominent alternative to magnetic confinement, is currently being researched and developed as part of Project Daedalus. An electron beam or a laser would be used to light a tiny pellet of fusion fuel (with a diameter of a few of millimeters), which would then undergo fusion. A magnetic field is used to shape the pusher plate, which then produces direct thrust. In theory, the Helium-3-Deuterium reaction or an aneutronic fusion reaction could be used to maximize the energy in charged particles while simultaneously minimizing the amount of radiation produced; however, it is highly debatable whether or not it would be technically feasible to use either of these reactions. Inertial confinement was used in both the comprehensive design studies conducted in the 1970s for the Orion drive as well as for Project Daedalus. In the 1980s, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA worked on a concept for a Vehicle for Interplanetary Transport Applications that was powered by ICF (VISTA). The conical VISTA spacecraft has the capability to transfer a cargo of up to 100 tons to Mars orbit and then return to Earth in 130 days. Alternatively, it can deliver the same payload to Jupiter orbit and then return to Earth in 403 days. In order to power the fusion reaction, 41 tons of deuterium and tritium, also known as D-T fusion fuel, and 4,124 tons of hydrogen propellant are needed. The velocity of the exhaust would be 157 kilometers per second.

Magnetized target fusion (MTF) is a relatively new approach that combines the best features of the more widely studied magnetic confinement fusion (i.e. good energy confinement) and inertial confinement fusion (i.e. efficient compression heating and wall free containment of the fusing plasma) approaches. MTF is an acronym for magnetic target fusion, and it is abbreviated as MTF. In the magnetic approach, the fusion fuel is heated into a plasma while it is confined at a low density by magnetic fields. On the other hand, in the inertial confinement approach, fusion is initiated by rapidly squeezing the target in order to significantly increase fuel density, and consequently, temperature. Instead of using strong lasers, MTF employs plasma guns, also known as electromagnetic acceleration methods. This results in tiny reactors that are both cheap cost and low weight. In comparison to the Discovery II and VISTA designs, this design would be far more compact and have a lower impact on the environment thanks to its significantly greater exhaust velocity (700 kilometers per hour).

Inertial electrostatic confinement, often known as IEC, is another prominent idea for the containment of fusion rockets. Examples of IEC include the Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor and the Polywell variant that is being developed by Energy-Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC2). The University of Illinois has developed a plan for a Fusion Ship II that has a mass of 500 tons and is capable of transporting a crewed cargo of 100,000 kilograms to Jupiter's moon Europa in 210 days. Ion rocket thrusters with an exhaust velocity of 343 km/s are used aboard the Fusion Ship II, which is fueled by ten D-He3 IEC fusion reactors. For a one-way journey to the Jupiter system that would take