It assumes the Navy Salvatore Pais Plasma Compression Fusion Device could exist.
Pais’ patent claims it could produce upwards of one gigawatt (one billion watts) to 1 terawatt (one trillion watts) of power from just a megawatt (one million watts) of energy input.
Pais also patents for piezoelectricity-induced room temperature superconductor, gravity wave generators and inertial mass reduction.
The Pais fusion device only measures 0.3 to 2 meters in diameter. The patent design uses conical dynamic fusors that spin at extremely high speeds to produce a sustained, concentrated magnetic flux that could in theory sustain the plasma state needed for power production. This powerful magnetic flux then compresses an isotopic hydrogen gas mixture to form a plasma core in the vacuum chamber, which can achieve temperatures high enough to achieve true fusion with breakeven energy.
The Solar One design drawing also ignores the heat radiators. 25 Terawatts of fusion reactor would need monstrous heat radiators.
Solar One would accelerate at 0.18 g and reach 30% the speed of light, arriving at the Alpha Centauri system in around 15 years.
Solar One uses 25 Terawatt-reactors that are supposed to weigh 2 tons each.
There have been many more detailed a realistic interstellar nuclear fusion rocket designs. Project Rho has several.
Icarus Interstellar has the Firefly D-D interstellar fusion-rocket. Firefly is far more reasonable than the Solar One design. Firefly does not use massive radiation shields, and instead try to let as much of the radiation escape into space. It is designed to fly at 10% of the speed of light and has 150 tons of payload.
SOURCES – Solar One – A Proposal for The First Crewed Interstellar Spacecraft, Alberto Caballero
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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