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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Fusion reactors in space
Message-ID: <266@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Mar-86 01:21:11 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.266
Posted: Sat Mar 15 01:21:11 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Mar-86 01:36:28 EST
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 15


>Inertial fusion reactors might make good rockets.  Magnetic fusion
>reactors won't make good rockets; although they have good Isp their
>power/mass ratio is limited by the need to radiate waste heat
>deposited in the reactor structure.  In inertial confinement fusion
>rockets the exploding pellet debris will carry away much of the heat,
>and the reaction chamber can be designed to let most of the neutrons
>escape to space.

Being as I was the one who brought up using fusion instead of fission
in space I thought I would clarify that what I had in mind was an
onboard power source, not a rocket propellant, although this turn of
the discussion is interesting.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University