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Method and apparatus to produce high specific impulse and moderate thrust from a fusion-powered rocket engine

Patent ·
OSTI ID:1410285
; ; ;
A system and method for producing and controlling high thrust and desirable specific impulse from a continuous fusion reaction is disclosed. The resultant relatively small rocket engine will have lower cost to develop, test, and operate that the prior art, allowing spacecraft missions throughout the planetary system and beyond. The rocket engine method and system includes a reactor chamber and a heating system for heating a stable plasma to produce fusion reactions in the stable plasma. Magnets produce a magnetic field that confines the stable plasma. A fuel injection system and a propellant injection system are included. The propellant injection system injects cold propellant into a gas box at one end of the reactor chamber, where the propellant is ionized into a plasma. The propellant and fusion products are directed out of the reactor chamber through a magnetic nozzle and are detached from the magnetic field lines producing thrust.
Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-09CH11466
Assignee:
Princeton Satellite Systems (Plainsboro, NJ); The Trustees of Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Patent Number(s):
9,822,769
Application Number:
14/400,204
OSTI ID:
1410285
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (4)

Comparative Investigation of Fusion Reactions for Space Propulsion Applications
  • Petkow, Dejan; Herdrich, Georg; Laufer, Rene
  • Transactions of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Space Technology Japan, Vol. 7, Issue ists26, p. Pb_59-Pb_63 https://doi.org/10.2322/tstj.7.Pb_59
journal September 2009
Onset and Saturation of Ion Heating by Odd-Parity Rotating Magnetic Fields in a Field-Reversed Configuration journal January 2006
Open Confinement Systems and the D-3He Reaction journal August 1992
Magnetic Fusion for Space Propulsion journal May 1992

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Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY