farmerben Posted Monday at 02:43 PM Share Posted Monday at 02:43 PM Suppose you have particle accelerators that can take tritium nuclei and accelerate them to >.9c. You arrange these accelerators like the arms of a squid or octopus. At the center is a pusher plate that looks similar to an Orion drive but the plate itself is made of fissionable material. We could use natural uranium, or several other elements. The plate is subcritical fissionable material, but when struck by a tritium ion with sufficient velocity, neutrons are liberated. Free neutrons cause temporary criticality near the surface of the plate itself. These fission events near the surface of the plate are the primary driver of the propulsion system. Over time the plate would crack and ablate and the fission products would leak out as part of the propellant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spacescifi Posted Tuesday at 08:14 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 08:14 PM On 2/3/2025 at 6:43 AM, farmerben said: Suppose you have particle accelerators that can take tritium nuclei and accelerate them to >.9c. You arrange these accelerators like the arms of a squid or octopus. At the center is a pusher plate that looks similar to an Orion drive but the plate itself is made of fissionable material. We could use natural uranium, or several other elements. The plate is subcritical fissionable material, but when struck by a tritium ion with sufficient velocity, neutrons are liberated. Free neutrons cause temporary criticality near the surface of the plate itself. These fission events near the surface of the plate are the primary driver of the propulsion system. Over time the plate would crack and ablate and the fission products would leak out as part of the propellant. How do you keep the plate from going KA-BOOM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmerben Posted Tuesday at 08:49 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 08:49 PM It is a subcritical plate that needs the extra fast neutrons deposited by the accelerator to fission. But it is many small KA-BOOMs, that's the point to make the plate itself fission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuke Posted Wednesday at 11:05 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 11:05 PM (edited) i often contemplated gas gun initiated fusion targets. but you need a fuel that can generate charged particles such that they can be vectored by a magnetic nozzel. so aneutronic fuels, which are harder to fuse. i mean you could use lasers, but i figure gas guns would take up less mass, assuming the consumables aren't a problem. the possibility may exist to use an external laser to initiate targets, but you could only perform burns while the ship is in range of the laser. Edited Wednesday at 11:07 PM by Nuke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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