3 Fusion projects at NIAC today

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Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

3 Fusion projects at NIAC today

Post by Skipjack »

There will be 3 different fusion related projects presented today. The first one will be in about 25 minutes from now.
The syposium is in Denver. So all times are for that timezone:

10:45 Raymond Sedwick, University of Maryland, College Park, Continuous Electrode Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion
11:10 Michael LaPointe, NASA MSFC, Gradient Field Imploding Liner Fusion Propulsion System
2:55 Stephanie Thomas, Princeton Satellite Systems, Inc., Fusion- Enabled Pluto Orbiter and Lander

Live stream is here:
https://livestream.com/viewnow/NIAC2017
Full Program is here:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... agenda.pdf
I am very excited to see Stephanie Thomas present the latest work by PPPL and PSS.
Also was cool to see David Kirtley from MSNW and Helion talk about Magnetoshell Aerocapture.

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: 3 Fusion projects at NIAC today

Post by Skipjack »

Direct link to the archived stream with the two fusion talks starting at about 25 minutes into the stream. These first two of the three fusion concepts today are still in Phase 1 and not very far along. So they are quite sketchy in details. I thought Raymond Sedwick's concept was more interesting and refined yhan MSFC's.
The MSFC concept seems similar to what Slough, Pancotti and David Kirtley explored with their work on the Fusion Driven Rocket at MSNW, but not as far along. Currently, I would say that the MSNW concept looked more interesting. Wished they had gotten more funding for exploring that further.

https://livestream.com/viewnow/NIAC2017 ... /163389847

Skipjack
Posts: 6805
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:29 pm

Re: 3 Fusion projects at NIAC today

Post by Skipjack »

The presentation by Stephanie Thomas was really good. They are still at least 5 years and 50 million USD away from a break even reactor, though.
Would be cool to see this funded, though. Their reactor concept is very interesting and extremely compact.

https://livestream.com/viewnow/NIAC2017 ... /163399149
Her segment starts at about 25 minutes into the video.

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