Search found 12 matches
- Wed Mar 04, 2009 9:06 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Well there will still be a nice big curve in your trajectory =) Shure. I'm not an expert, but I think, that in the acceleration phase is initially an ellipse. The eccentricity of the ellipse will increase untill the curve will become parabolic and after hyperbolic. For short travel in ARC modality,...
- Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:18 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
For your story, make sure you realize that this is not exactly how you would get to the Oort cloud. In CSR mode you will be accelerating at very low thrust, spiraling outward. In electric propulsion, the manuever is called a non-impulsive burn. The calculation is simple if your starting and target ...
- Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:44 pm
- Forum: Implications
- Topic: Oort cloud
- Replies: 9
- Views: 9684
Re: Oort cloud
Random thoughts. It seems to me that fusion might be the only viable energy source if people ever venture into the Oort cloud. Kuiper belt objects wouldn't contain much in terms of fission fuel, I imagine. But it seems that with fusion it might be possible. Would we ever build on the surface of the...
- Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:12 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
Quaoar For high thrust what you would do is dump a lot of hydrogen through cooling coils around the reactor and use the heated hydrogen for thrust. This mode really would not be necessary for anything but launch and/or moving from orbit to escape velocity on time sensitive missions.[/quote] I need ...
- Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:57 pm
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Heat Pipes for Polywell
- Replies: 11
- Views: 11405
- Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:47 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
I have another question about Dr. B'DFP engine: with a secondary magnetically insulated diulition chamber put after the diverter coils, may be possible to reach higer diluition rate (near 1:500,000) to lower the exaust velocity up to 16 km/s and allow the DFP to funcion also in high thrust modality ...
- Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:40 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
Depends on how much fuel you have. Fission Orion pulse-det gets you to 8-10% of C (a Cent in 45 years), Daedelus fusion pulse-det gets you 12-15% of C (a Cent in <30 years), given the designs at hand. D-T Polywell could do significantly better, 16-20% C (a Cent in 20-30 years), possibly act as a bo...
- Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:17 pm
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Alpha collector geometry idea...
- Replies: 42
- Views: 37017
How about magnetic fields. Dos they bend alfas path and how much is effect? Can field catch alfas circulating wider and make circulation to collide magnets surface? Maybe talked thing but not yet find that.. In a future where the HT-superconductor technoligy will be more mature, could be possible t...
- Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:11 pm
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
As far as I'm concerned it's not a question of whether such 'hibernation' tech is possible, but how soon, and how much it extends permissible transit time. There have been some intriguing animal studies using hydrogen sulfide. It appears that there are mechanisms built into animal metabolism to ent...
- Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:52 pm
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
Very dispersed, and very distant. The planetary subsystems and primary asteroid belts (Main, Greek, Trojan) are the most favorable sites for resource acquisition, eventual dense settlement, and the military control that settlement will in time require. IMO "military spacecraft" in any hard scifi sc...
- Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:37 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Re: Polywell for spacecraft
CSR-B looks like an MHD system. One of the papers at Askmar ("From SSTO to Saturn's Moons") cites thermal limits due to accelerator magnets. A chart in the same paper puts the Isp range for CSR drives between ~8000 to ~80,000 seconds, and thrust-to-weight between ~3 & .~03.. Thank you very much, I ...
- Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:23 am
- Forum: Design
- Topic: Polywell for spacecraft
- Replies: 44
- Views: 36541
Polywell for spacecraft
Hi all, I'm an italian dilectant SF writer. I was looking for realistic spacecraft for interplanetary travel in our solar sistem, and I found on-line Dr. Bussard's very interesting spacecraft based of fusor Polywell. Dr. Bussard's engine, QED/ARC, QED/CSR and DFP, match very good with the plot of my...