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Polywell Fusion Research funding increased
Looks like there is even an option for another $4.5Mil: https://www.fbo.gov/index?id=dd2b08e...2c4b06c1c50507
So it seems the $8Mil is for WB8.0 and another $4.5Mil is available for WB8.1 if the 8.0 results are satisfying. Interesting times ahead. I think Dr. Nebel said that we will know if the design works in the next 1-2 years which would correspond to the contract end of April 2011. I guess one of the main outcomes of these experiments will be the experimental validation of the predicted scaling law.Posted 09-15-2009 at 12:22 PM by Mindblast 
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Polywell Fusion Research funding increased
Looks like funding for WB 8.1, maybe research on WB 9, which some people think will be the intermediate stage (the stage Bussard didn't think was needed) which will be intended to be large enough to exceed unity. Nevel thinks they can have a production powerplant as soon as 2020.Posted 09-15-2009 at 12:22 AM by Tommy
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Posted 09-13-2009 at 03:40 AM by dougkeenan
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Polywell Fusion Research funding increased
And the congress complains about 3 billion more for NASA...Posted 09-12-2009 at 08:53 PM by Urwumpe
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
Funny stuff i just tested this.
Mars: Not really practical.. next to no thrust from the fans, even with QED engines on the thrust is not enough to get the ship in motion. So you need rocket mode for takeoff. Minimum takeoff speed is then at around M3 where i would expect the landing gear to be just debris.
You can then use the airbreathing mode to some extent up to ~M7 then the massflow gets too low to generate sufficient thrust. So its rocket mode from there again.
Titan: Now that one is nice. Orbit velocity at around M5.5 The engines would not be very effective but give sufficient thrust to get to orbit with only the last bit from M4.5 to 5.5 needing mode 4. So you could get to orbit with next to no LH2 used -> huge payload possibilities.
Venus: A real showstopper. Unfortunately the maximum temperature limit for the fans is 600K for now so on Venus they wouldn't work at 750K surface temperature. Another problem is that currently i have the fan motors limited to 300MW power which is not nearly enough on venus to reach a pressure ratio of > 2:1 to be able to simulate a choked nozzle condition. I might try some other way to simulate thrust from the fans but i guess it would all feel more like driving a submarine than an airplane.Posted 08-20-2009 at 07:41 AM by Mindblast
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
@pattersoncr: Oh well a bomb just sits there until it blows up but with a Mach 3 cruise missile flying around with essentially unlimited fuel you never know what could happen i guess.
@Tommy: Yes you are right its essentially a gas-heating engine. I guess the Mars atmosphere would be a bit thin but Titan should work. Maybe also Venus if the ship could somehow cope with the high ground pressures and sulfuric acid.Posted 08-20-2009 at 06:17 AM by Mindblast
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this isn't just airbreathing, it's atmosphere breathing. Meaning it could work on Mars (perhaps, not much atmo there) or Titan? I had a similar idea, not as well thought out, for a Titan glider. After all, the air isn't being used for combustion, so O2 content isn't required.Posted 08-20-2009 at 02:19 AM by Tommy
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
Well is was out on the national test site. They used to set off nuclear bombs there for testing.
Hard to see how a pluto test flight would be any worse.Posted 08-20-2009 at 01:57 AM by pattersoncr
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
Haha yes i read about that.. thats some pretty scary stuff they did there. Good thing they canceled the project.Posted 08-19-2009 at 09:15 PM by Mindblast
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
I once saw a show on the old Discovery Wings Channel about Project Pluto. It was absolutely fascinating. They had a vast fleet of air compressors and compressed air tanks along with air heaters in order to supply air at the pressure & temperature that the reactor would see in flight. They got as far as planning a flight test. One idea was to attach the missile to a cable anchored to the ground to ensure the missile didn’t fly outside the test range. Imagine a 15ton, nuclear powered tether-ball! At this point cooler heads prevailed, ICBMs entered service, and the project died.Posted 08-18-2009 at 09:42 PM by pattersoncr
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
Interesting read. I know there was also a project for a nuclear powered cruise missile called Pluto in the 60s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_PlutoQuote:Originally Posted by pattersoncr
This reminds me of the Aircraft Reactor Experiment that I first read about herePosted 08-16-2009 at 06:08 AM by Mindblast
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Fusion SSTO airbreathing engine concept
This reminds me of the Aircraft Reactor Experiment that I first read about herePosted 08-16-2009 at 03:38 AM by pattersoncr
