Reply To: Barack Obama on Energy

[Brian H]

Aeronaut wrote:

Ok, here’s another one by the same authors, obviously they cleaned it up for public release:

http://quantumg.net/advancements_in_dense_plasma_focus_for_space_propulsion.pdf

It includes pretty pictures. The conclusions are similar, but only the “not wildly optimistic” results are presented 🙂

Eric estimated 2 ton mass (I’m pretty sure it was unshielded) in his Google talk video. A 360 degree water jacket 1 meter thick is the single largest and heaviest component. But I’m sure you can pretty much eliminate the shielding mass if the reactor’s on the end of a 100 foot long boom. Could be tough getting a net reduction of mass…

Eric’s first 2 experiments were funded by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. The incoming Bush Administration defunded the program that JPL was using to fund FF.
Net FF mass reduction isn’t a big deal, compared to the fuel load necessary for a chemical thrust rocket. Fuel weight would be negligible for FF, even at non-stop full thrust. Reaction mass would maybe be the largest requirement, unless the alpha beam itself would serve. A small ion engine would be much lighter, but would have much lower specific impulse, too.