3 ms·
I don't think this is inconsistent though? The goal is to optimize the Isp you get from your fuel, not to get more energy out of the process then you put in nec
by XorNot 3y ago
I don't think this is inconsistent though? The goal is to optimize the Isp you get from your fuel, not to get more energy out of the process then you put in necessarily - i.e. in space you can harvest solar power all you want, but if you don't have reaction mass then you can't give yourself momentum which is what you need to get around.
So efficiently using the reaction mass you have is worth it, even if you put in more energy then you get out.
- ben_w 3y agoIndeed, but my surprise is due to how far away Farnsworth fusors seemed to be from useful for anything besides being a switchable source of (ironically given this article is about aneutronic p-B11) neutron radiation.
- baking 3y agoThe only thing I can figure is that this beam-target fusion except that the proton beam is their primary thruster so that any protons that don't fuse are not wasted. Still not sure how they get a 50% increase from fusion with boron but I assume that is merely optimistic.
- pfdietz 3y ago> Still not sure how they get a 50% increase from fusion They don't, and didn't claim that.