Baraza
  • Communities
  • Create Post
  • Create Community
  • heart
    Support Lemmy
  • search
    Search
  • Login
  • Sign Up
@i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.worldEnglish •
edit-2
2 months ago

A Stunning Fusion Rocket Could Cut Interplanetary Travel in Half—and We'll Try It in Just 2 Years

www.popularmechanics.com

external-link
message-square
10
fedilink
  • cross-posted to:
  • space@lemmy.world
47
external-link

A Stunning Fusion Rocket Could Cut Interplanetary Travel in Half—and We'll Try It in Just 2 Years

www.popularmechanics.com

@i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.worldEnglish •
edit-2
2 months ago
message-square
10
fedilink
  • cross-posted to:
  • space@lemmy.world
Fusion has long been the propulsion end-goal for interplanetary travel, and a U.K.-based company thinks on its way to achieving that dream.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250331084035/https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a64256267/fusion-rocket-sunbird/

  • @Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    8•
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Article is capped at 18 views/day so can’t see numbers.

    But theoretical cap of energy would be something like E_kin = (\gamma -1)mc². Without knowing anything about the mission or engine, a 50 kg probe at a velocity of .9 c means an energy requirement of about 1,0e19 J.

    Fusion of H2 to H3 yields about 340e9 J/g meaning we need about 3 million kg of fuel at 100% conversion rate, or a third if we manage He3 reaction.

    Realistically heating, engine efficiency, deceleration, vibrational damping and such would probably lower efficiency to at most 40% and we end up at 8 million kg of fuel to propel a 50 kg payload (not counting the fuel mass).

    Seems unfeasible.

    Edit as @i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.world kindly provided an alternative link.

    Article only says doubly efficient, and H2 to He3 reaction.

    To get to .9c we still need a couple million kg of fuel.

    Even .1c needs about 40 000 kg of fuel, which is doable, but probably unfeasible.

    0,05c should be in kgs range, and is probably plenty (100 km/s).

    • @i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      0•
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      https://web.archive.org/web/20250331084035/https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a64256267/fusion-rocket-sunbird/

      • @Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1•2 months ago

        Still blocked, but thank you

        • @i_have_no_enemies@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1•2 months ago

          https://web.archive.org/web/20250331084035/https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a64256267/fusion-rocket-sunbird/

          • @Brainsploosh@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            3•2 months ago

            This worked, thank you.

            Article only says doubly efficient, and H2 to He3 reaction.

            To get to .9c we still need a couple million kg of fuel.

            Even .1c needs about 40 000 kg of fuel, which is doable, but probably unfeasible.

Technology@lemmy.world

!technology@lemmy.world

Subscribe from Remote Instance

Create a post
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


  • @L4s@lemmy.world
  • @autotldr@lemmings.world
  • @PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks
  • @wikibot@lemmy.world
  • 1.59K users / day
  • 4.77K users / week
  • 10.4K users / month
  • 23.9K users / 6 months
  • 70K subscribers
  • 11.2K Posts
  • 256K Comments
  • Modlog
  • mods:
  • @L3s@lemmy.world
  • enu
  • Technopagan
  • L4sBot
  • BE: 0.19.3
  • Modlog
  • Instances
  • Docs
  • Code
  • join-lemmy.org