Talk-Polywell.org

I think those are already included in the design of the ZAP, but you still need to charge them from a source before the reactor first shot and also in any event when there is not enough energy charge to allow for another shot. I disagree with that. We agree that we disagree, we will just need to wa...

Ok, why such a huge ship? 30,000 tonnes is quite big, IMHO, especially when using only one engine (engine mass is not really that relevant). Would have to agree: The SpaceX BFR (Big Falcon Rocket or Big frick Rocket) has a planned payload of 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) when flying reusable or 250,000 k...

F=MA Wrong formula and also you didn't include the fuel mass in the calculations. For a rocket you need to use Tsiolkovski rocket equation [ dV=Ve x ln(Mi/Mf) ]as acceleration will increase while total mass decreases over time. I deliberately didn't use the fundamental equation of rocketry because ...

Ok, why such a huge ship? 30,000 tonnes is quite big, IMHO, especially when using only one engine (engine mass is not really that relevant). At the current distance to Saturn I am roughly estimating about maybe 300 days total trip time for a 660 take off mass ship (30 tonne dry and 630 tonne fuel)....

What is the destination? Saturn maybe? Using his figures: If we assume for easy of calculations that the ship mass at destination still to be 30000 Tons and keep the engine thrust to 300 KN than we have with rough calculations: Ship Mass: 30.000 Tons Fuel Mass: 240.000 Tons Acceleration phase (firs...

As for the exact amounts of T produced, I am not sure. I think it again depends on the reactor. From all I have read, I would guess it is somewhere on the magnitude of 30 kg of T per year for a reactor(s) producing 1 GW. That is 900 million dollars worth of Tritium a year. Granted, at that point th...

That is actually a nice side effect of the D+D reaction for making He3 (I think I mentioned that before). D+D produces He3 in one branch and Tritium in the other. Selling that Tritium would make a ton of money. There is a high demand for military and medical applications and possibly D+T fusion rea...

I am still not sure whether mining Saturn for He3 is cost effective. I think it will be cheaper to breed it in D+D reactors on Earth, at least until demand increases dramatically with hundreds of D+He3 ships flying around and mining at the outer planets becomes easier/cheaper because of all this. F...

That might be true, but the Asteroid belt is between 180 and 300 million km far from Earth, while Titan is 1300 Million km far. We can imagine a 6 to 8 month trip to reach Asteroid belt area and maybe (with cheap fuel) we can squeeze it to 5 moth for a near earth object. So, going to the belt would...

I think that asteroids containing Carlsbergite might be the source of nitrogen on Earth I didn't know about Carlsbergite and I didn't expect that it was a CrN compound... Quite unusual and intriguing. At 21% N content this could indeed be an excellent starting raw material. Probably more Nitrogen (...

I am still not sure whether mining Saturn for He3 is cost effective. I think it will be cheaper to breed it in D+D reactors on Earth, at least until demand increases dramatically with hundreds of D+He3 ships flying around and mining at the outer planets becomes easier/cheaper because of all this. G...

Yes, but mining titan would be harder than mining asteroids. Deeper gravity well. The gravity of Titan is 1.352m/s2 actually less than the moon's although you probably mean Saturn's gravity well which Titan is obviously in as well. Titan is large but made of low density materials. Titan can hold on...

Is worth mentioning that a cheap source of Nitrogen outside earth would be one of the most important factors to enable cheap Space farming. This is very off topic, but I agree about the nitrogen part. I think that asteroids containing Carlsbergite might be the source of nitrogen on Earth and we cou...

This I believe is the main point. Not only Ammonia is extremely rare on the inner side of solar system, but for what is my knowledge also Nitrogen is nowhere to be found, either bonded or free (Venus is probably the only meaningful place outside earth where to find it, but I doubt it will be more e...

2) To get the 330.000 N of thrust (the 3.300 GW power output you mentioned) an input energy of 1.800 GW for the pinch is than required.... Minor correction that is 3.3 TW not GW; yes that engine would need some serious coolant: Input Power 1.8×10 12 W Fusion Power 3.3×10 12 W (for the D-He3 burn.) ...