Re:An Alfvenic reconnecting plasmoid thruster
by nine_k on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @05:07AM
(#27818890)
It's not very viable yet because the only form of it we reliably achieve is a bomb. This makes the only useful spacecraft to use it something like Project Orion.
Such a device, while possible, is very fuel-inefficient: you need several kg of plutonium just to ignite the tritium. Peak mechanical and radiation loads are very high.
A thruster which could produce much lower thrust for a much longer time seems much safer and cheaper to implement, even if detonating nuclear bombs in space were not an issue. And a issue it is: you need to do it rather far away from all other spacecraft, which means some weird orbital plane.
Nuclear fusion is another feasible option, if you can get around the Partial Test Ban Treaty because an asteroid is going to exterminate humanity or something.