– Helicity Space got $5 million in seed round funding from several new investors including Airbus Ventures, TRE Ventures, Voyager Space Holdings, E2MC Space, Urania Ventures and Gaingels. There is no need to wait for terrestrial fusion power to begin using fusion propulsion in space. Pushing a spacecraft with short bursts of fusion can be …
China’s Navy researchers have claimed to have solved issues to make military relevant and useful railguns. China has mounted a single test railgun on a ship since about 2018-2019. China has talked about 32 megajoule power range tests and plans and future 100 megajoule systems. The US is now working with Japan to develop and …
Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) is the preferred propulsion technology for manned missions throughout the solar system. The state-of-the-art NTP cycle is based on solid core Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) class technology that is envisioned to provide a specific impulse (Isp) of 900 seconds doubling chemical rocket performance (450 seconds). Even with this …
USNC-Tech envisions adapting EmberCore for an electric propulsion system that could propel a spacecraft to extremely high speeds. “The spacecraft architecture is capable of incredible delta-V on the order of 50-100 km/s,” USNC-Tech’s Christopher Morrison says in the company’s proposal. That would translate to 110,000 to 220,000 mph. Cobalt-60 gives 17 watts per gram. A …
Early 2011, NASA NIAC study of fission fragment propulsion. Brian WangBrian 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. Known …
Pulsar Fusion will make a linear nuclear fusion rocket propulsion system. They will heat hydrogen plasma with microwaves to create fusion propulsion. They will perform laboratory tests next year and in 2025 and then have an orbital test within three years. Pulsar recently partnered with aerospace R&D company Princeton Satellite Systems (PSS) for a study …
The NT Times had a recent article discussing laser nuclear fusion. Nextbigfuture has spoken with all of the nuclear fusion companies listed in the NY Times article as they all attended the 2023 International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications conference. Nextbigftuure covered detailed National Ignition Facility presentations six weeks ago at the 2023 …
Pulsar Fusion, a propulsion startup based in England, announced last week it is partnering with the University of Michigan to research electric Hall-effect thruster tech. The UK Space Agency is funding the collaboration. Pulsar recently began developing in-space electric propulsion systems to capitalize on the growing demand for the tech. The U of M partnership …
Everyone knows about shrinkflation in the grocery store. Prices have risen about 20-80% over the last three years so product makers try to give you less for around the same price. This shrinkflation is even worse for nuclear power plants. It used to be $2 billion for a 1000 megawatts of nuclear power plant in …
A small modular nuclear reactor by NuScale is getting canceled because it would have produced 450 Megawatts and cost over $9 billion. The Vogtle Unit 3 and unit 4 are each 1,114 megawatt (MW) AP1000 nuclear reactors, and they will cost a combined $30 billion. The US was trying to shift to small modular nuclear …
The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have made a new strategic partnership to accelerate the demonstration and commercialization of fusion energy. The partnership marks the UK’s first formal international fusion collaboration since the recent launch of the GBP650 million (USD799 million) Fusion Futures Programme. …