by Kelvin F Long
Recently I have been looking at deep space probes driven by inertial confinement fusion propulsion. The SunVoyager is a mission concept for a 500 - 1000 AU flight carrying a 100 tons payload. In the current configuration it would complete the mission in a trip time of order 6 - 10 years travelling at speeds of 720 km/s. It would use a 5.76 milli-gram pellet filled with D3He fuel detonated at 10 Hz pulse frequency augmented with expellant propellant for enhanced mass flow rate. The laser driver would be 43.5 MJ delivered to the target with an assumed efficiency of 24.3% which implies a wall plug equivalent energy of 179 MJ. This is using a laser with an effective intensity of 4e17 W/cm2 and 60 separate beamlines. ICF propulsion is difficult. It was designed using a code I have been constructing in Fortran 95 called HeliosX. For information see the first concept paper published in the Journal of Spacecraft & Rockets and a follow-up paper which will shortly be submitted:
Development of the HeliosX Mission Analysis Code for Advanced ICF Space Propulsion, Acta Astronautica, 202, 157-173, 2023.
SunVoyager: Interstellar Precursor Probe Mission Concept Driven by Inertial Confinement Fusion Propulsion, Journal of Spacecraft & Rockets, 60(3), May-June 2023.
SunVoyager Revisited: Interstellar Precursor Probe Driven by Inertial Confinement Fusion Propulsion, Submission Pending, March 2024.
