Fusion propulsion is inevitable if the human race remains dedicated to exploration of the solar system. There are fundamental reasons why fusion surpasses more traditional approaches to routine crewed missions to Mars, crewed missions to the outer planets, and deep space high speed robotic missions, assuming that reduced trip times, increased payloads, and higher available power are desired. A recent series of informal discussions were held among members from government, academia, and industry concerning fusion propulsion. We compiled a sufficient set of arguments for utilizing fusion in space. .If the U.S. is to lead the effort and produce a working system in a reasonable amount of time, NASA must take the initiative, relying on, but not waiting for, DOE guidance. Arguments for fusion propulsion are presented, along with fusion enabled mission examples, fusion technology trade space, and a proposed outline for future efforts.


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    Title :

    Future Directions for Fusion Propulsion Research at NASA


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit ; 2005 ; Tucson, AZ, United States


    Publication date :

    2005-07-10


    Type of media :

    Preprint


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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