A Uranium Plasma Propulsion System
- Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
A propulsion system that ejects uranium ions through a magnetic nozzle to produce thrust is presented. Fission fragments with a total mass of 212 amu and energy of about 160 MeV created by 'at rest' annihilation of antiprotons in U-238 are utilized in heating an ionized background U-238 gas to one KeV temperature. This uranium plasma will be of such density and temperature as to make it suitable for confinement in a gasdynamic mirror magnetic configuration with asymmetric mirror ratio to allow it to escape from one end to generate the thrust. With a U-238 beam target injected radically at a predetermined position, a beam of antiprotons is pulsed axially to strike the U-238 target and induce fission. It has been shown theoretically and experimentally that 'at rest' annihilation of antiprotons in U-238 nuclei causes fission at nearly 100% efficiency. In this paper we present the underlying physics of the induced fission and the heating of the background U-238 gas by the fission fragments, and its confinement in the proposed magnetic geometry. The various mechanisms associated with antiproton propagation in uranium plasma are examined, and the critical distance for achieving 'at rest' annihilation at the target is calculated. Confinement of such a plasma in a gasdynamic mirror is also considered, and a preliminary design of a corresponding propulsion device is established. It is shown that such a system can produce about 3000 seconds of specific impulse, and about 8 Kilo-Newton of thrust. When applied to a round trip mission to Mars it is shown that such a journey can be accomplished in about 100 days with one day of thrusting, and requiring one gram of antiprotons to achieve it. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21160552
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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