Quick flight to Mars and Pluto: rockets with thermonuclear engine will make a revolution (video)
Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! Pulsar Fusion has introduced its plans to create a whole fleet of multiple space missiles with a thermonuclear engine, which according to the company will make a revolution in space flights. The first tests of new missiles in orbit are expected to be held in 2027, but it will be possible to use new vehicles for fast flights in the solar system no earlier than 10 years.
The length of the Sunbird missiles will be approximately 30 meters, and they will have a futuristic design, strong protection against cosmic radiation and meteorite bombing, and their most important advantage is extremely strong thrust. Thanks to it, rockets will be able to gain a very high speed, which will make it possible to reduce the flight time to the planets and satellites of the solar system.
The calculations show that the cost of creating one Sunbird missile will be approximately $ 90 million. Pulsar Fusion proposes to place multiple Sunbird missiles in low Earth orbit, where they will join spacecraft and deliver them as a space tractor at any point of the solar system at high speed. This can significantly reduce the cost of such interplanetary missions. For example, the flight time on Mars can be 3-4 months, instead of 6-8 months with the help of existing technologies.
And the flight to Pluto, which was once considered the ninth planet of the solar system, will take 4 years instead of nine years. New multiple missiles will be equipped with thermonuclear engines that Pulsar Fusion is currently being developed by Pulsar Fusion. These engines will use the energy of thermonuclear synthesis to create thrust. Thermonuclear synthesis is considered to be a source of almost boundless energy that scientists try to obtain in large quantities with Tomamak reactors.
They are synthesized by hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, to produce a lot of energy. But so far, this energy does not exceed the amount of energy spent on the launch of thermonuclear synthesis. Pulsar Fusion is going to use a different version of the reactor in its engines, where the synthesis of deuterium and helium isotope is the synthesis called Helia-3. But the exact design of these engines is kept in the strictest secret.