by The dream of nuclear fusion has been pursued by some of the brightest heads in the world for decades. It is easy to see why – the interior of stars here on earth would mean a practically unlimited clean energy.
Despite a long story of experiments and several breakthroughs, the dream has not yet turned into reality, and we are probably removed from many years to see a merger power plant everywhere on the planet.
By performing the process in space, perhaps an additional complexity level sounds like an already complex technology, but it could theoretically occur earlier than on earth. And it could help to achieve space, speeds of up to 500,000 miles (805,000 kilometers) per hour – more than the fastest object that was ever built, the Parker Solar probe of NASA, which reached its climax at 430,000 miles per hour.
With the financing of the British Space Agency, the British Startup Pulsar Fusion Sunbird has introduced a space rocket concept that fulfills the spaceship in orbit, with nuclear fusion at its destination at its destination.
“It is very unnatural to make fusion on earth,” says Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar. “Fusion does not want to work in an atmosphere. Room is a much more logical and more sensible place to make fusion, because he wants to happen there anyway.”
For the time being, Sunbird is located in the very early stages of the construction and has extraordinary technical challenges, but Pulsar hopes that it can achieve fusion in orbit for the first time in 2027. If the rocket is ever put into operation, it could shorten the travel time of a possible mission to Mars in half one day.
Only gram fuel
The nuclear fusion differs from the nuclear fission, which has the current nuclear power plants. The split works by dividing heavy, radioactive elements like uranium into easier ones using neutrons. The large amount of energy that is released in this process is used to generate electricity.
Fusion makes the opposite: it combines very light elements such as hydrogen, using high temperature and pressure. “The sun and the stars are all fusion reactors,” says Dinan. “You are element cookers – hydrogen cooking in helium – and then when dying, you create the heavy elements that make everything out. Ultimately, the universe is mainly hydrogen and helium, and everything else was cooked in a star by fusion.”
Fusion is sought because it publishes four times more energy than division and four million times more energy than fossil fuels. But in contrast to the split, fusion requires no dangerous radioactive materials. Instead, fusion reactors would use the deuterium and tritium, severe hydrogen atoms with additional neutrons. They would work on tiny amounts of fuel and do not produce any dangerous waste.
However, the merger requires a lot of energy to start because conditions that are similar to the core of a star must be generated – extremely high temperature and pressure and an effective restriction to maintain the reaction. The challenge on earth was to create more energy from the merger than they are classified at the beginning, but so far we have hardly just broken.
Several organizations research the use of nuclear fusion as an energy source on earth. In the picture, a section of JT-60SA, the world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion reactor, at the NAKA Fusion Institute, Japan. – Philip Fong /AFP /Getty Images
But if electricity generation is not the goal, things become less complicated, says Dinan – only the simpler goal of creating a faster exhaust gas speed.
The reactions that nuclear fusion supply in a plasma with electricity – a hot, electrically charged gas. Just like proposed reactors on Earth, Sunbird would use strong magnets to heat a plasma and create the conditions for the fuel – which would be in the gram regulations – to collapse and merged. But while on earth there are circular reactors to prevent particles from escaping, they would be linear on Sonnenbird – because the masturbating particles would drive the spaceship.
In the end, it would not generate neutrons from the merger reaction that create the heat on earth. Instead, Sunbird would use a more expensive fuel type called helium-3 to produce protons that can be used as “nuclear exhaust gas” to ensure drive.
The Sunbird process would be expensive and unsuitable for energy generation on Earth, says Dinan, but because the goal is not to make energy, the process can be inefficient and expensive, but still valuable because it would save fuel costs, reduce the weight of the spacecraft and bring it to its goal much faster.
Cutting travel times
According to Dinan, Sunbirds would work on docking stations similar to the city bikes: “We start space and we would have a charging station where you could sit and then hit your ship,” he says. “They switch off their inefficient internal combustion engines and use nuclear fusion for most of their trip. Ideally they have a station somewhere near Mars, and they would simply have a station on the low -focus or the (sun birds).”
Richard Dinan, CEO of Pulsar and research engineer Bilge Kacmaz inspect a vacuum chamber with which the room conditions for fusion drive tests imitate. – Pulsar fusion
Some components will have an Orbit demonstration this year. “Basically, they are captured, which are put to the test to ensure that they work. Not very exciting, because there is no merger, but we have to do it,” says Dinan. “Then, in 2027, we will send a small part of Sunbird in the Orbit to check whether the physics works when the computer takes on. This is our first in orbit demonstration in which we hope that we will make fusion in space. And we hope that Pulsar is the first company that actually achieves this.”
According to Dinan, this prototype costs around 70 million US dollars, and it will not be full of Sunbird, but a “linear fusion experiment” to prove the concept. The first functional Sunbird will be ready four to five years later, provided that the necessary funds are secured.
First of all, the sun birds for the Shottling satellite are offered in orbit, but their true potential would come into play with interplanetary missions. The company illustrates some examples of the missions that Sunbird could unlock, such as: B. up to 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) in less than six months to deliver load and to be used in Jupiter or Saturn in two to four years. An Fast Earth Sea Sea in one to two years instead of three years.
Other companies are working on nuclear fusion engines for space operating, including Helicity Space in Pasadena, who invested Lockheed Lockheed Martin in 2024. General atomics in San Diego and NASA work on a different kind of nuclear reactor-based on the merger, which they test with the most important of market.
According to Aaron Knoll, a high -ranking lecturer in the field of plasma drive for spaceships on Imperial College London, which is not involved with Pulsar Fusion, there is great potential to use the merger for the drive of the spacecraft. “While we are still a few years away from making fusion energy a sustainable technology for electricity generation on Earth, we don’t have to wait to use this power source for the drive of space vehicles,” he says.
The reason, he adds that the amount of energy output must be greater than the energy input to generate electricity on earth. But if you use a merger performance for a spaceship to create thrust, every energy yield is useful – even if it is less than the energy to be supplied. All of this combined energy, which comes together from the external power supply and the fusion reactions, will increase the thrust and efficiency of the drive system.
However, he adds that there are considerable technical hurdles in order to make fusion technology reality in space. “Current Fusion reactor constructions on Earth are large and heavy systems that require an infrastructure of support devices such as energy storage, power supplies, gas tax systems, magnets and vacuum pumps,” he says. “The miniaturization of these systems and the light weight is a considerable technical challenge.”
Bhuvana Srinivasan, professor of aviation and astronautics at the University of Washington, which is also not involved with Pulsar, agrees that the drive of the nuclear fusion has a significant promise for space flight: “It would be extremely advantageous, even if it is an exit to the moon, since the introduction of an entire propublic base is not with a single mission. But dramatic, ”she says. However, it also points to the difficulties to make it compact and easy, an additional technical challenge that represents a lower consideration for terrestrial energy.
If the merger drive is unlocked to Srinivasan, people would not only allow people to continue traveling in space, but also to be a game change for unaffected missions to collect resources such as Helium-3, a merger fuel that is rarely rare on earth and must be artificially created. invaluable, ”she says.
“Researching planets, moons and solar systems that are further away is of fundamental importance for our curious and exploratory nature and may lead to a significant financial and social benefit in a way that we do not yet recognize.”
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