Fusion power for space rockets
A British startup has joined forces with a leading US company to use AI to design a space rocket capable of reaching Saturn’s moons in just two years.
Pulsar Fusion in Oxfordshire is working with Princeton Satellite Systems on a rocket engine design using nuclear fusion.
The two companies will use machine learning simulations to create a nuclear-powered deep space rocket engine with a potential speed of 500,000 mph. This would make Mars reachable in just 30 days and Saturn in under two years.
The collaboration will see the two companies using AI machine learning to study data from the PFRC-2 reactor in order to better understand the behaviour of plasma under electromagnetic heating and confinement, when configured as an aneutronic propulsion system.
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“This is a hugely significant step for Pulsar. By pooling our own research and resources with those of Princeton Satellite Systems, Pulsar has gained access to behavioural data from PRFC-2 coupled with recent advancements in machine learning, this will supercharge the development of our nuclear fusion rocket systems,” said Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar Fusion.
Rather than developing fusion power for energy, the company, previously called Applied Fusion Systems, has focussed on propulsion. Last year it was awarded funds from the UK Space Agency to conduct research into nuclear electric propulsion.
“Our view is that fusion propulsion will be demonstrated in space decades before we can harness fusion for energy on Earth,” said Dinan. “Space is the ideal place to do fusion in terms of it being a vacuum and the extremely cold temperatures,” he said. “Unlike a fusion power station, fusion propulsion doesn’t require a giant steam turbine and fuels can be sourced externally rather than needing to be created on site.
Pulsar is developing simulations based on gas puffing data from the PFRC-2 to attempt to create predictive simulations of ion and electron behaviour in an FRC plasma.
These predictive simulations are needed for closed loop control systems, a key component of a future PFRC reactor.
PSS and the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) are collaborating on a new fusion technology called Direct Fusion Drive, a 10MW direct-drive, fusion-powered rocket engine concept.
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