Space
This new nuclear fusion rocket will help us escape the solar system in our lifetime
Nuclear fusion rockets developed by one company could allow humanity to leave the solar system in the near future.
Rockets powered by nuclear fusion could be closer than you think.
According to a press release, British rocket manufacturer Pulsar Fusion has received funding from the UK Space Agency to develop “integrated nuclear fission-based power systems for electric propulsion”.
They will be working with the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton and the Nuclear AMRC to bring their concept of green rocket technology in the form of fusion propulsion to fruition.
The aim of Pulsar Fusion is to one day use nuclear fusion to create hypersonic rocket technology. The sun and stars have been generating enormous amounts of energy through nuclear fusion for eons.
According to Pulsar Fusion’s press release, “While nuclear fusion may be the solution to the energy dilemma, it is also the solution to in-orbit satellite management and deep space exploration. According to [Pulsar], fusion propulsion is the only means by which humans will ever be able to leave the solar system in our lifetime.
The goal of scientists everywhere is to use nuclear fusion to produce energy on Earth, but this goal has not yet been achieved. Before achieving its ultimate goal, Pulsar Fusion may have to wait for improvements in this technology, but it could also increase efforts to develop commercially viable nuclear fusion technologies.
The company also produces a variety of rocket engines. These include the largest and most powerful electric spacecraft engine ever tested in Europe, conducted independently by researchers at the University of Southampton as part of a government-funded project in 2021.
Pulsar Fusion’s “green” hybrid rocket engine burns high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fuel, oxygen and nitrous oxide (N2O). The liquid, which is oxidized under controlled pressure, is injected into the combustion chamber through a control valve.
In early November 2021, the company successfully tested its engine at the Cranfield Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre (COTEC), a military facility operated by the UK Ministry of Defence in Salisbury, Wilts. This follows the successful completion of a global demonstration for aerospace customers in Switzerland.
“Pulsar has built and tested the most powerful electric propulsion engines in Europe,” said Dr. James Lambert, Head of Operations at Pulsar.
“Combining this part of our propulsion portfolio with nuclear fission reactor technology is a perfect fit for the company’s capabilities and I am delighted that this has been recognized by the UKSA.
The project will help us build relationships and gather important data that will contribute to our longer-term ambitions for nuclear fusion propulsion.”
In addition, Pulsar Fusion received funding from the UK government in September last year to support the development of its Mach-7 Hall Effect Thruster (HET) plasma satellite engines, which have particle exhaust velocities of 20 km/s. The company hopes to test its engines in space in the near future.
A nuclear fusion rocket prototype is something the British rocket company has previously said it hopes to create by 2025.
According to its latest press release, the company is confident that it can create the “fusion-based infrastructure and propulsion technologies” needed to enable nuclear fusion rockets “in less than four years”.
If it succeeds, the technology could be brought to Earth, changing both the way we travel through space and the way we generate energy on Earth.
A former US Air Force fighter pilot asserts that he has deciphered
the method behind the extraordinary maneuvers of UFOs, reports dailystar.co.uk.
Over
the past two decades, numerous military encounters with these enigmatic
crafts have been reported, prompting a significant investigation by the
Pentagon.
One of the most renowned sightings occurred during the
USS Nimitz encounter, where fighter pilots witnessed a UFO descending
from 28,000 feet to just above sea level in less than a second.
This
astonishing movement would imply that the craft reached a staggering
speed of 19,000 miles per hour, a velocity that would be fatal to any
human pilot.
According
to Chris Lehto, a former USAF pilot, the craft exhibits two key
characteristics: it moves without inertia, essentially lacking weight,
and it accelerates at an incredibly rapid pace without affecting its
surroundings.
Image: NATO Allied Air Command/Facebook
Chris
believes that the explanation lies within a technology that seems
straight out of science fiction. He proposes that the answer to the UFO
enigma lies in the Alcubierre Drive, a theoretical interstellar engine
conceptualized by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994.
The
Alcubierre Drive employs a form of “space warp” technology, reminiscent
of what has been depicted in episodes of Star Trek. By bending space, a
craft inside a “warp bubble” could potentially travel at or even
surpass the speed of light without violating the known laws of physics.
While
the Alcubierre Drive remains a hypothetical concept with challenges to
overcome, Chris notes that the required energy is no longer believed to
be unattainably large.
Patents
filed with the US patent office outline the potential workings of the
drive, as well as another groundbreaking technology theorized by
American aerospace engineer Salvatore Pais.
Pais suggests that
high-powered rotating magnets could theoretically eliminate an object’s
inertia, and he has filed a patent for a starship based on this
principle.
However, Chris maintains skepticism regarding Pais’
theory. He explains that while Pais’s patent applications for the US
Navy attracted attention for their potential energy-related
applications, doubts have been raised about their feasibility. There is
speculation that they may be scams, pseudoscience, or disinformation
intended to mislead adversaries of the United States.
Alternatively,
rival theories propose that the “Tic Tac” UFO is a classified Pentagon
project testing similar advanced technologies discussed by Chris.
Scientists say they have found evidence of a new Earth-like
planet that has suddenly appeared in our Solar System and is orbiting
the Sun.
Physicists, including those from the National Astronomical Observatory
of Japan, said the planet is likely to be the mysterious ‘Planet Nine’
that was hypothesised to exist in the far outer edges of the Solar
System.
Several studies in the past have suggested there is likely an
undiscovered planet beyond the Kuiper Belt – a stellar disk of materials
such as asteroids, space rocks, comets around the Sun in the outer
Solar System past the orbit of Neptune.
Independent.co.uk reports: In the new research, published recently in The Astronomical Journal, scientists
found that some of the objects in the Kuiper Belt behave in a way
indicative of the presence of a small planet among them.
One such object, they said, is about 500 astronomical units (AU) from
the Sun, where 1 AU is the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
In comparison Neptune is at a distance of 30 AUs from the Sun.
Some of these were also found to have “odd” orbits suggesting they
are being pull by the gravity of a cosmic entity larger than those that
typically influence such objects.
Computer simulations run by the scientists indicate that the most
likely explanation for the observations was another hidden planet in the
Kuiper Belt.
“We predict the existence of an Earth-like planet,” researchers wrote in the study.
“It is plausible that a primordial planetary body could survive in
the distant Kuiper Belt as a Kuiper Belt planet (KBP), as many such
bodies existed in the early solar system,” they added.
If such a planet exists, researchers say it would have a mass about
1.5 to 3 times that of Earth with an inclination of about 30 degrees.
They say the theorised planet’s orbit would likely place it between 250 and 500 AU from the Sun.
Researchers say the discovery of such a planet close to the Kuiper
Belt can unravel new constraints on planet formation and evolution.
“In conclusion, the results of the KBP scenario support the existence
of a yet-undiscovered planet in the far outer solar system,” scientists
noted.
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