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Researchers at the University of Washington say they've built all the pieces for a fusion-powered rocket system that could get a crew to Mars in 30 days. Now they just have to put the pieces together and see if they work.
"If we can pull off a fusion demonstration in a year, with hundreds of thousands of dollars ... there might be a better, cheaper, faster path to using fusion in other applications," John Slough, a research assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, told NBC News.
Billions upon billions of dollars have been spent on fusion energy research over the past half-century — at places like the National Ignition Facility in California, where scientists are zapping deuterium-tritium pellets with lasers; Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, the home of the world's most powerful laboratory radiation source; and the ITER experimental facility in France, where the world's biggest magnetic plasma chamber is being built.
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/05/17606782-scientists-develop-fusion-rocket-technology-in-lab-and-aim-for-mars?lite
"If we can pull off a fusion demonstration in a year, with hundreds of thousands of dollars ... there might be a better, cheaper, faster path to using fusion in other applications," John Slough, a research assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, told NBC News.
Billions upon billions of dollars have been spent on fusion energy research over the past half-century — at places like the National Ignition Facility in California, where scientists are zapping deuterium-tritium pellets with lasers; Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, the home of the world's most powerful laboratory radiation source; and the ITER experimental facility in France, where the world's biggest magnetic plasma chamber is being built.
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/05/17606782-scientists-develop-fusion-rocket-technology-in-lab-and-aim-for-mars?lite
