Pulsar Fusion, the ambitious aerospace company from the United Kingdom, has made a groundbreaking announcement in the field of astronomy by embarking on the creation of a nuclear fusion rocket engine. This innovation promises to usher in a completely new era of space exploration for humanity by significantly reducing interplanetary travel times within our Solar System.
Pulsar Fusion aims for its new rocket, powered by a Direct Fusion Drive (DFD), to achieve an astonishing speed of 805,000 km/h (equivalent to 223,611 meters per second). Additionally, this rocket will have the hottest temperature in the Solar System, capable of generating temperatures hundreds of times hotter than the core of the Sun (details below).
If successful, the UK rocket equipped with the DFD engine will become the fastest rocket in history, surpassing those from the United States and China. Specifically, NASA has reported that its latest Space Launch System (SLS) rocket has a maximum speed of 9,700 meters per second. Meanwhile, China’s strongest rocket, the Long March 5, reaches a maximum speed of 7,777 meters per second, as reported by Time Magazine.
To achieve these groundbreaking goals, Pulsar Fusion plans to harness the power of nuclear fusion reactions, the same process that fuels our Sun.
Scientists suggest that nuclear fusion propulsion technology could revolutionize space travel in terms of both speed and fuel efficiency.
Reactions similar to those that generate energy for the Sun could help humanity cut travel time to Mars in half or enable a journey to Saturn and its moons in just two years instead of eight.
The largest nuclear fusion rocket engine model in the world. (Photo: Pulsar Fusion).
Nuclear fusion involves fusing two atoms together to release a vast amount of energy. Scientists believe this process can generate limitless, carbon-free energy to replace fossil fuels.
Richard Dinan, CEO and founder of Pulsar Fusion, stated: “Humanity has a great aspiration for faster propulsion engines as the space economy continues to grow, and nuclear fusion provides the power for rockets that are 1,000 times stronger than the conventional ion engines currently used in orbit.”
The Engine Marvel: Recreating the Sun Inside a Rocket!
While this is incredibly exciting, not everyone believes it will be effective because: This technology requires extremely high temperatures and pressures to operate.
The key to thermonuclear energy lies in generating sustained heat. Pulsar Fusion’s new Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) rocket engine, currently being developed at a testing facility in Bletchley, UK, promises to reach several hundred million degrees, creating temperatures hundreds of times hotter than the core of the Sun.
[The surface temperature of the Sun is about 5,537 degrees Celsius, while the temperature in the core is around 15 million degrees Celsius].
Engineers report that the fusion chamber will be approximately 8 meters long, with plans to launch the rocket by 2027.
The 8-meter-long fusion chamber is expected to house the “artificial sun” inside. (Photo: Pulsar Fusion).
The fusion reaction generates energy and creates plasma made up of charged particles. These energetic particles are converted into thrust using a rotating magnetic field. However, confining super-hot plasma with electromagnetic fields poses a significant challenge.
To gain a deeper understanding of the complex plasma, the company is employing machine learning (ML) to analyze data from the PFRC-2 fusion reactor in the United States. Simulations will assess the performance of nuclear fusion plasma for propulsion as it escapes from the rocket engine, releasing exhaust particles at hundreds of kilometers per second. In other words, AI will help optimize the magnetic fields needed to contain fusion plasma and power the rocket engine.
Recreating an artificial sun inside a rocket is no easy task. At the center of the nuclear fusion chamber lies extremely hot plasma, locked within an electromagnetic field, and scientists are continuously working on how to achieve this in a stable and safe manner.
Dr. James Lambert, CFO of Pulsar Fusion, told Space Daily: “The challenge is learning how to hold and contain the super-hot plasma within the electromagnetic field. Plasma behaves like a weather system, extremely difficult to predict with conventional techniques. Scientists have struggled to control chaotic plasma because it is heated to hundreds of millions of degrees and is always changing. This ‘unpredictable’ characteristic arises from the constantly changing state of plasma.”
A Revolution to Take Humanity Beyond the Solar System
Despite the many challenges, recent breakthroughs have brought the journey to recreate an artificial sun closer to reality. For instance, in December 2022, scientists achieved the first fusion reaction that generated more energy than was needed to initiate the reaction. This milestone was hailed as “one of the most impressive scientific achievements of the 21st century.”
Richard Dinan, the head of Pulsar Fusion. (Photo: Pulsar Fusion).
At Pulsar Fusion, hopes are further ignited by new advancements in AI. The company is actively collaborating with the Princeton Satellite Systems (USA) to utilize supercomputer simulations to better understand how plasma will behave under electromagnetic confinement.
“The Direct Fusion Drive rocket engine is truly a game-changing technology that allows us to reach deep space destinations much faster and with enormous power, enabling us to conduct more scientific research as we reach other planets,” said Stephanie Thomas, Vice President of Princeton Satellite Systems.
The next step will be an orbital demonstration, with Pulsar Fusion planning to launch a nuclear fusion-powered propulsion system into space for the first time in 2027.
Pulsar Fusion is the first company to plan the development of a rocket engine powered by nuclear fusion, followed by a thermonuclear power plant on land. (Photo: Pulsar Fusion).
By 2027, Pulsar Fusion intends to prove that its rocket can achieve thermonuclear temperatures. If the tests are successful, the company will move one step closer to creating the world’s first commercially viable fusion-based engine.
Richard Dinan, the head of Pulsar Fusion, is gradually realizing the aspiration to empower humanity to leave the Solar System one day. “If we want to leave the Solar System within a human lifetime, there is no other technology that we know of that can do that except this technology,” Dinan believes.
Along with making space travel significantly shorter, nuclear fusion also promises to provide clean, nearly limitless energy for life here on Earth.
