A fusion rocket is a theoretical design for a rocket driven by fusion propulsion that could provide efficient and sustained acceleration in space without the need to carry a large fuel supply. The design requires fusion power technology beyond current capabilities, and much larger and more complex rockets.
Fusion nuclear pulse propulsion is one approach to using nuclear fusion energy to provide propulsion.
Fusion's main advantage is its very high specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is the (likely) large mass of the reactor. A fusion rocket may produce less radiation than a fission rocket, reducing the shielding mass needed. The simplest way of building a fusion rocket is to use hydrogen bombs as proposed in Project Orion, but such a spacecraft would be massive and the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty prohibits the use of such bombs. For that reason bomb-based rockets would likely be limited to operating only in space. An alternate approach uses electrical (e.g. ion) propulsion with electric power generated by fusion instead of direct thrust.
A fusionrocket is a theoretical design for a rocket driven by fusion propulsion that could provide efficient and sustained acceleration in space without...
fission/fusion reaction or to "spike" the propulsion of a fusionrocket or any similar applications. The antiproton-driven Inertial confinement fusion (ICF)...
time fusion research appeared to be making great strides, and in particular, inertial confinement fusion (ICF) appeared to be adaptable as a rocket engine...
Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) is a conceptual, low radioactivity, nuclear-fusionrocket engine, designed to produce both thrust and electric power for interplanetary...
Pulsar Fusion is a UK-based start-up that has demonstrated two designs of prototype rocket engine. It is headquartered in Bletchley, United Kingdom. Pulsar...
field. The Bussard ramjet can thus be seen as a ramjet variant of a fusionrocket.[citation needed] The Bussard ramjet was proposed in 1960 by the physicist...
rocket (NTR) is a type of thermal rocket where the heat from a nuclear reaction replaces the chemical energy of the propellants in a chemical rocket....
interstellar fusion ramjet named after Robert W. Bussard. Fission fragment rocket Fission sail Fusionrocket Gas core reactor rocket Nuclear salt-water rocket Radioisotope...
thermal rocket, the fission fragment rocket, nuclear pulse propulsion, and the possibility of a fusionrocket, assuming that nuclear fusion technology...
Alan Bond led a team of scientists and engineers who proposed using a fusionrocket to reach Barnard's Star 5.9 light years away. The trip was estimated...
cargo, and passengers inside (see Inertia negation). Fusionrocket starships, powered by nuclear fusion reactions, should conceivably be able to reach speeds...
vehicles. Fusionrockets, powered by nuclear fusion reactions, would "burn" such light element fuels as deuterium, tritium, or 3He. Because fusion yields...
keV. China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor Cold fusion Focus fusion Fusenet Fusionrocket Impulse generator Joint European Torus List of fusion experiments...
photon rocket is a rocket that uses thrust from the momentum of emitted photons (radiation pressure by emission) for its propulsion. Photon rockets have...
field. The Bussard ramjet can thus be seen as a ramjet variant of a fusionrocket.[citation needed] An afterburning turbojet or bypass engine can be described...
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket...
tripropellant rocket is a rocket that uses three propellants, as opposed to the more common bipropellant rocket or monopropellant rocket designs, which...
if 100% of the input microwave power were converted to thrust. Ad Astra Rocket Company is developing the VASIMR. Canadian company Nautel is producing the...
developed during nuclear fusion research. VASIMR is intended to bridge the gap between high thrust, low specific impulse chemical rockets and low thrust, high...
A monopropellant rocket (or "monochemical rocket") is a rocket that uses a single chemical as its propellant. Monopropellant rockets are commonly used...
a type of rocket engine which uses the expansion of a (typically inert) pressurized gas to generate thrust. As opposed to traditional rocket engines, a...
spacecraft must rely on other methods such as conventional chemical rockets or non-rocket launch technologies to reach their initial orbit. The first person...
/ c {\displaystyle F=P/c} if mass-free energy is ejected. For a photon rocket the efficiency is too small to be competitive. Other technologies may have...
A cryogenic rocket engine is a rocket engine that uses a cryogenic fuel and oxidizer; that is, both its fuel and oxidizer are gases which have been liquefied...
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