Aneutronic fusion propulsion for earth-to-orbit and beyond
- Flight Unlimited, 5450 Country Club, Flagstaff, Arizona 86004 (United States)
Previous work by Bussard has indicated that certain aneutronic fusion rocket propulsion systems could enable establishment of self-supporting space colonies throughout the solar system at transportation costs less than one-tenth current costs to place satellites in orbit around earth. This paper shows that such colonization costs would not significantly increase, even if fusion propulsion performance that is significantly less than that estimated by Bussard would cause increase in the masses and flight times of some of the vehicles. Costs for some colonization missions would significantly increase if colonization vehicles could not be used for other space missions. But even under such circumstances, transportation costs would be extraordinarily low compared to those currently envisioned for solar system exploration.
- OSTI ID:
- 21179662
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 420, Issue 1; Conference: STAIF-1998: Space technology and applications international forum - 1998, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 25-29 Jan 1998; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.54750; (c) 1998 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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