Re: starship-design: Proton-Lithium Fusion Drive

[Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca>]

For all the people who can't read stupid attached files.
Johnny Thunderbird wrote:
>    p + 7.Li --> 2 (4.He) + 17.3 ev
> 
>    Having been a longtime advocate of proton-beryllium fusion
> reaction as a spaceship drive, when I heard of the
> proton-lithium cycle I immediately converted because of the
> universal abundance of lithium compared to beryllium. Both
> these cycles have the insuperable advantage of not yielding
> neutrons, as do other fusion cycles, making them clean and not
> dirty. My proposal for a compact space drive includes a lithium
> electric arc centered between cyclotron dees, to project
> lithium ions through gaseous hydrogen, as the basis for a
> fusion drive. Lithium is not as abundant as hydrogen, which
> suggests it should be the accelerated species, that a higher
> proportion of it might be involved in fusion reactions. The
> ideal material for a combustion chamber would be 12.C isotopic
> CVD (chemical vapor deposition) diamond deposited over cooling
> channels through which liquid hydrogen circulates; no solid
> material conducts heat better than diamond made of carbon-12,
> nor does any element carry heat away faster than hydrogen,
> superfluid helium III excepted, for which cryogenic
> requirements are too strict for use in engines. Diamond can be
> used only because there are no oxidizing conditions present,
> and under reducing conditions diamond will serve as a fair
> refractory, so long as its temperature can be kept below its
> sublimation point. As with any rocket drive, I would wrap a
> superconducting coil around the exit jet, for the
> magnetoplasmadynamic benefits.
> 
>    Johnny Thunderbird

To all would be fusion drive designers - it looks good on paper
can we build it? Check here for answers. http://fusor.blogspot.com/
The speed of dark. Some interesting new ideas on light from autodynamics
make change space propulsion.
http://www.autodynamics.org/new99/Atomic/PhotoRest/index.html
-- 
"We do not inherit our time on this planet from our parents...
 We borrow it from our children."
"Luna family of Octal Computers" http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk