Reply To: EmDrive + Focus Fusion = Space Access for all?

[belbear]

texaslabrat wrote:
As I mentioned before, an F-16 (a small, single-engine, lightweight fighter) in full afterburner consumes the rough equivalent of 300 MW. The top speed of an F-16 in full afterburner is about Mach 2.0 at altitude. Believe me, you’re gonna need power in the GW scale to even think about a hypersonic high-altitude first stage or a hypersonic trans-continental aircraft. As a “fun fact” comparison, each of the 5 Saturn V first-stage engines consumed a heat-content equivalent of over 30GW. It’s hard to wrap your head around the shear power requirements needed for high-performance flight..but they are indeed quite steep.

Hmm, indeed quite steep. But that’s why I propose a two-stage approach (see my other post). The second fusion stage releases all its fusion energy as heat for thrust. No coils, layers or conversion losses, just pure punch. Count it out: For each p-B11 fusion 150keV goes in, 8,7MeV comes out.

It will be difficult to squeeze into an F-16, (MAYBE if you accept to expose the pilot’s balls to an unhealthy dose :sick: ) but a 100MW of electricity from stage 1 MAY be sufficient to provide the GW’s of thrust we need.
Of course it remains highly speculative until we can use data from an actual power-positive FF prototype.