John Slough gets NIAC PhaseII award!

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:05 pm

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/early_s ... wards.html

Great news, John Slough of MSNW LLC and Helion energy got a phaseII award for his FRC-imploding liner based fusion propulsion system. This NIAC PhaseII award means 500,000 USD for his research.
Cant wait to see his next results and future work!

Ivy Matt · Post by **Ivy Matt** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:18 am

I just saw that, and was about to post the news here. My best wishes to Slough and the MSNW team.

Ivy Matt · Post by **Ivy Matt** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:04 am

The latest news from NASA NIAC:

The NIAC Fall Symposium will be held in Hampton, Virginia on November 14-15, 2012 ( more details to be announced soon!)

If it's like the 2011 Fellows Orientation Meeting, each group will present no more than a poster summarizing their project. If it's like the 2012 Spring Symposium, on the other hand, there may be some papers, particularly from the Phase II groups. The change of name to "Fall Symposium" seems to indicate that such is the case, but who knows?

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:19 am

Thanks for the info Ivy
Hope John Slough will be showing some new results of his work there!

Axil · Post by **Axil** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:02 pm

See

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/636883main_FDR_ ... _final.pdf

For an overview and links see

http://www.msnwllc.com/index_tech.html

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:09 am

See

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/636883main_FDR_ ... _final.pdf

For an overview and links see

http://www.msnwllc.com/index_tech.html

Yeah, I am sure we all have seen these. I cant wait for some new results though. Slough talked about doing some experimental work he planned to start in July and he does have the funding for that now too. So we might all get to see some really cool stuff, provided he succeeds.

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:56 pm

The Electrodeless Lorentz Force Thruster

The ELF thruster, funded by the Department of Defense, utilizes Rotating Magnetic Field (RMF) and pulsed-inductive technologies that promise radical advances in space propulsion. The ELF creates, forms, and accelerates field-reversed plasma toroids to high velocity. It has demonstrated the ability to efficiently utilize complex propellants such as Air, Argon, and Hydrazine .

The ELF enables a broad range of high-power propulsion missions. Fundamentally, this technology has significantly greater thrust and power densities than any realizable propulsion technology. The ability to operate on in situ propellants will enable very eccentric orbit propulsion, re-fuelable orbital transfer vehicles, deep space return missions, and even direct drag makeup for extremely low orbits. At current power levels, this thruster technology minimizes system mass, size, and cost, while increasing overall mission flexibility. Finally, extending this technology to higher densities and powers that have been demonstrated in the laboratory, there are mission applications in high-altitude, air-breathing, hypersonic flight and beamed-energy upper stage propulsion that are not feasible with traditional technologies.

Sincerely hope MSNW doesn't let their air-breathing propulsion research languish while they work on the easier, high-Isp interplanetary propulsion.

I think the greatest need for innovation is found at the ground-to-orbit part of the trip.

Anyone know where these can be found?

Preliminary Performance Measurements of the Air-Breathing ELF Thruster. J. Slough, D. Kirtley, and T. Weber. Joint Army Navy NASA Air Force Conference, Orlando Florida (2008).

Air-Breathing Plasmoid Ejector (APE). D. Kirtley, J. Slough, and T. Weber. Advanced Space Propulsion Workshop, Pasadena, CA (2008).

paperburn1 · Post by **paperburn1** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:55 pm

DeltaV wrote:The Electrodeless Lorentz Force Thruster

Sincerely hope MSNW doesn't let their air-breathing propulsion research languish while they work on the easier, high-Isp interplanetary propulsion.

I think the greatest need for innovation is found at the ground-to-orbit part of the trip.

Anyone know where these can be found?
Preliminary Performance Measurements of the Air-Breathing ELF Thruster. J. Slough, D. Kirtley, and T. Weber. Joint Army Navy NASA Air Force Conference, Orlando Florida (2008).

Air-Breathing Plasmoid Ejector (APE). D. Kirtley, J. Slough, and T. Weber. Advanced Space Propulsion Workshop, Pasadena, CA (2008).

I agree , if we can have cheap cost to LEO then the rest of the trip is negligable . we already have the technology if we could get it to orbit in a cost effective manor.

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Thu Aug 30, 2012 11:33 pm

I think the greatest need for innovation is found at the ground-to-orbit part of the trip.

I agree with that as well, but most of John Sloughs reasearch is somewhat interrelated. So if he gets funding for one part of his research, he can also advance his other work. So I am happy to see him get funding for any of his projects. Personally I would have preferred ELF and most of all his FRC colliding beam reactor project to get some money, but you cant have it all and if he has a big breakthrough with his fusion propulsion, he can probably get funding for his other research more easily.

Ivy Matt · Post by **Ivy Matt** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 8:38 am

https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=NIAC12E

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program’s 2012 Fall Symposium will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hampton, VA on November 14-15, 2012.

All are invited to attend this meeting which will introduce our new Phase I Fellows’ research (poster sessions) and our Phase II Fellows will present research presentations.

The agenda can be found here. John Slough is giving a presentation titled "The Fusion Driven Rocket: Nuclear Propulsion through Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy" on Wednesday, November 14 at 3:30 PM.

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:33 pm

Good news about John Slough. He needs to get out more.

Art Carlson was/is a big fan of his work, As am I. Art suggested John was a much better scientist than he was a sales person. He needs sponsors who can spot his talent and the potential of his work.

Hoping it happens for him/his ideas.

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:46 am

Good news about John Slough. He needs to get out more.

Art Carlson was/is a big fan of his work, As am I. Art suggested John was a much better scientist than he was a sales person. He needs sponsors who can spot his talent and the potential of his work.

Hoping it happens for him/his ideas.

Yepp, yepp, yepp and yepp

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:22 pm

MSNW has upgraded their website.
http://msnwllc.com/

A few glitches on the propulsion publications page ("The ELF Thruster" links to "Macrons"), but very interesting.
http://msnwllc.com/propulsion-publications

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:59 pm

Cool! Thanks for pointing it out! Not very much new there, but a few things are new. Cant wait to see more of their work.

Ivy Matt · Post by **Ivy Matt** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 8:33 am

Not to alarm anyone or start any conspiracy theories, but does anyone have an idea why NASA's NIAC site seems to have disappeared from the Web? All applicable links now seem to redirect to the Office of the Chief Technologist's page.