HEPlaR this decade

[Spinward Flow]

Pulsed Plasma
2000+ isp ... high thrust + high isp ... which can hopefully be scaled up to human scale interplanetary craft.

What I find fascinating is that they're going to be using METAL for propellant, because metal is "available" in a pre-fusion in-situ space economy.

 

[mike wightman]

Nice find.

The issue isn't the drive, it is powering it with solar panels or a fission reactor...

 

[Spinward Flow]

 

[mike wightman]

I really hope it works.

 

[Spinward Scout]

powering it with solar panels or a fission reactor...

Is it to much to ask for both?

 

[aramis]

Is it to much to ask for both?

No. Ask for both, hope for at least one, plan for neither....

Current plasma drives are still low thrust. Vasimir and other "high efficiency" magneto plasma drives have been available for (literally) over half a century. early 1960's.
Even VaSIMR is 50 kW for 0.5n. If I read the abstracts correctly, that's on a 44kg thruster, which, ignoring other mass entirely is about 1 milligee.

And a current gen small modular reactor of about 200 kW is 20 tons... tho' probably half that can be shed ... Even with a 100× improvement in magnetoplasma thrust, still talking milligees... (9.8N~1 kg×1 G)

 

[TJP]

For the second video. "The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."