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Pulsar Fusion unveils nuclear fusion rocket concept for space travel

The company says that unlike the large amounts of fuel required for a chemical rocket, the relative tiny amounts of the deuterium and helium-3 fuel mix required means “a spacecraft would launch with a fixed supply, sufficient for missions like Pluto in four years, with no mid-flight refuelling needed”. (Repost)


The Sunbird nuclear fusion rocket concept has the potential to more than halve the time to travel to Mars and cut travel time to Pluto to about four years, the UK’s Pulsar Fusion says.

The company says its in-house team has been working on the project for a decade and it is “rapidly advancing toward in-orbit testing, with components of the system’s power supply set for demonstration later this year” and then demonstrated in orbit in 2027. They hope for a production-ready Sunbird in the early 2030s.

The Sunbird concept is for the fusion-powered ‘tugs’ to be permanently based in space, able to dock on to spacecraft and propel them at high speed over vast distances. Pulsar Fusion says it foresees a compact nuclear fusion engine providing both thrust and electrical power for spacecraft, including as much as 2 MW of power on arrival at a destination.

How recurrent fluorescence helps organic molecules survive extreme interstellar conditions

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unlocked the depths of interstellar space with unprecedented clarity, offering humanity a high-resolution window into the cosmos. Harnessing this newfound capability, an international team of researchers set out to investigate how polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—organic molecules and key players in cosmic chemistry—survive the harsh conditions of space and uncover the mechanism behind their resilience.

Scientists Finally Discover a New Way to Travel Ten Times Faster than Light!

Watch THIS Next: https://youtu.be/6kcNzmUaTdA

Faster-than-light travel still seems like pure science fiction—but it could soon become a reality. Scientists have finally discovered a new way to travel at speeds ten times faster than light! Other research teams have made amazing breakthroughs in WARP technology, and in practice this could mean that in just 10 or 20 years we could have the first prototypes of spaceships capable of traveling enormous distances in ever shorter times.

Renowned Mars expert says Trump-Musk axis risks dooming mission

Robert Zubrin quite literally wrote the book on why humanity should go to Mars—so why has the renowned aerospace engineer soured on Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur leading the charge?

In an interview, the 73-year-old founder of the Mars Society delivered a blistering critique, accusing the world’s richest person of undermining the mission through divisive politics and a bleak vision of the Red Planet as an escape from Earth rather than a journey of hope.

“On one level, he’s absolutely instrumental in opening up this opportunity to get humans to Mars, both through the development of Starship and also the inspiration that has caused,” Zubrin told AFP, referring to Musk’s prototype rocket.

ENGINEERING EARTH: Sci-Fi Solutions to Earth’s Problems — 4K Full Documentary

High quality 4K Download: https://melodysheep.gumroad.com/l/udffp // Soundtrack: https://melodysheep.bandcamp.com/album/engineering-earth-original-soundtrack // Mankind has become the pilot of spaceship earth, whether we like it or not. Half of all habitable land on earth is now dedicated to supporting human activity. And as of the year 2020, the mass of all man-made materials now outweighs the mass of all life forms on earth.

Despite all this, we are still newcomers – untrained pilots steering an ancient, ever-changing planet. If we want to survive long-term and continue to grow, we will have to make bigger technological leaps than ever before.

This film explores the wildest, most ambitious, most dangerous ideas to keep Earth and humanity thriving, by protecting each of its layers – from the lithosphere to the stratosphere.

Many of our ideas may never materialize, but by dreaming them up, we can open our minds to the full potential of human willpower and intellect. The future is ours to build.

Thanks for watching everybody.

Music, Visuals, Sound & Story by Melodysheep (John D. Boswell)
melodysheep.com.
instagram: @melodysheep_
twitter: @musicalscience.

Narrated by Will Crowley.