Charles Bolden's friend

Discuss funding sources for polywell research, including the non-profit EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation, as well as any other relevant research efforts.

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Rick Kwan
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Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:26 pm
Location: Silicon Valley, California
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Charles Bolden's friend

Post by Rick Kwan »

Paragraph below is taken from the article "Chalie Bolden's vision for NASA"
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbe ... r_nas.html
Third, Bolden said that NASA had to make space exploration more entrepreneurial. He cited the example of a friend who was using venture capital to pursue a rocket engine that could take people to Mars in "39 days instead of 8 to 11 months." "The government cannot fund everything we need to do," he said.
Does Bolden have a friend funding fusion? I wonder who is the friend? And which kind of fusion? (Or is he simply talking about the VASIMR engine?)

Rick Kwan
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:26 pm
Location: Silicon Valley, California
Contact:

Post by Rick Kwan »

Some alert reader decided to transcribe the portion of the comfirmation hearing where Bolden made this comment. It turns out his friend is former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, and the system is definitely VASIMR.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2009/07/09 ... -audition/

I believe flight test of the engine at the ISS is planned in the next couple of years.

But to do Earth-to-Mars in 39 days, it will need a nuclear electric powerplant. Somewhere I recall this assumption is already made by Chang-Diaz and his group. Until they are given an alternative, they probably will push for the resurrection of Prometheus (fission for space applications).

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