2312

Lists (9)

Boosters to get off planets, Earth especially, need high thrust

Orbit-to-orbit interplanetary rockets need high exhaust velocity to save on fuel weights.

Deuterium-helium-3 fusion spheromak engine, built on Luna, use began in 2113;

Antimatter plasma core, magnetic bottle, Martian design, 2246;

Deuterium-tritium fusion, with lithium-blanketed core to create more tritium in the burn, Luna, 2056; two have lost thrust chamber integrity and exploded with loss of all hands;

Laser thermal, mainly used within the Jupiter and Saturn leagues for local transport, 2221;

Mass drivers for the terraria, 2090; often called the workhorse;

Inertial confinement fusion, Mars, 2237;

Micro-fission Orion format, subcritical pellets of curium-245 compressed to fission by Z-pinch, magnetic thrust to the pusher plate of the rocket, Callisto, 2271;

Orion style (external pulsed plasma propulsion), Luna, 2106

Magnetoplasmadynamic engine, propellant potassium seeded helium, Callisto, 2284;

Emergency propulsion system for disabled vessels, a “solar moth” where half of a balloon is silvered and sunlight is reflected onto a window chamber hoop boiler, where hydrogen seeded with alkali metals serves as the propellant. Tiny exhaust velocities and not powerful beyond Mars, but very compact until deployed, Mars, 2099;

Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma, which can “shift gears” from high thrust to high exhaust velocity, depending on need, Callisto, 2278;

advances in physics, materials science, and rocketry, plus a growing desire for improvements in speed and fuel efficiencies, now drive an industrial race for new designs, dominated by organizations on Luna, Mars, and Callisto, so we can expect to see