Documents / Report
This Defense Intelligence Agency reference document, dated 1 November 2010, is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2010 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It covers fusion plasma physics, confinement methods, and propulsion concepts that use aneutronic fuels such as hydrogen and boron-11. It concludes that such thrusters may soon replace satellite ion thrusters. It also finds that they will not be practical beyond the solar system without breakthrough propulsion physics.
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UNCLASSIFIED//F811. 8Fflli1Ale lal!i! 8111!¥ ESB\\'R Yec_.c_.el (6.-1 m ID, 21 m HI - ~ -, -- ~·_,;;:, - ~h~~ ITER Figure 18. ITER Design Concept With BWR Size and Blanket Segment NASA PROGRAMS From 1995 until 2002, NASA had funded advanced space propulsion studies through Marshall Space Flight Center. These studies included the application of fusion and matter-antimatter propulsion for space exploration missions. Recently, NASA has initiated a 5-year high-power electric propulsion demonstration program to develop the technologies for manned missions to Mars in a 20-plus-year timeframe. The program funding may allow initiatives for (p, 11 B) fusion-assisted propulsion, which may provide significant gains in thrust and lsp without reductions in thrust per watt expended. PRIVATELY FUNDED PROGRAMS There are a number of capital investment startups that have been developing fusion reactor technology with funding of several million dollars to greater than $50 million each. All these companies are basing their development on unique concepts or those described in Chapter 3. Table 4 summarizes these companies. Both Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (which uses DPF, dense plasma focus, confinement) and TriApha (which uses beam-heated FRC, field reversed configuration) have been shown conceptually to have low-mass aneutronic fusion propulsion systems that could use direct conversion for power and plasma ion for propulsion. Their success in the next few years may accelerate the implementation of aneutronic fusion propulsion. 23 UNCLASSIFIED/71P8R:: 8ffl@I.t.k Wli& SU.bl/
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 36 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.