...Impulse drives. According to C/Net, researchers at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Boeing, NASA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working on nuclear fusion powered impulse drive.
"The fusion fuel we're focusing on is deuterium [a stable isotope of hydrogen] and Li6 [a stable isotope of the metal lithium] in a crystal structure," Txchnologist quotes team member and aerospace engineering Ph.D. candidate Ross Cortez saying. "That's basically dilithium crystals we're using."
Woot!
More evidence that Gene Roddenberry was a time traveller who came to prepare us for the future! [1]
The Z-Pinch fusion or magnetic containment would keep the fusion flame (the equivalent of a Hydrogen bomb going off) from damaging the ship, and allow much higher velocities than we can currently achieve. They estimate speeds of over 62,000 MPH are possible, which would reduce a trip to Mars from 8 months to about 6 weeks. This could make routine flights around the solar system possible.
Sounds like the Epstein Drive from Leviathan Wakes.
Six weeks to Mars.. two or three months to the Belt? That's on part with the travel time from Europe to America in the 17th century. There will be people willing to take that step and build a new home in the sky.
If this gets off the ground, the sky's no longer a limit. Per aspera ad astra!
[1] Or that geeky science types like Star Trek. One of those two.
No comments:
Post a Comment