Clean, highly energetic reaction delivers a lot of drive from a drop of fuel
I saw this several days ago and my initial reaction was negative.
On further review, I saw this and it looks impressive.
The motor could generate 1 megawatt per second if the pulses are frequent enough to start reactions that consume that amount of boron in 1000 seconds. [ a little further ahead of this sentence--- Even at 50 percent efficiency, burning off 40 milligrams of the boron fuel would deliver a gigajoule of energy]
But it won't be ready soon. He says 10 years of work before this can be put to use.
Asked how long it will be before his fusion reactor is pushing spacecraft toward Mars, Chapman acknowledges that a decade of work might be required before that happens. "It takes teamwork to get something to the point where you put it in space," he says. His aim so far is "to get the idea out so other minds can begin thinking about it."
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