Comments on: Project Icarus -A Design for an Interstellar Spacecraft

By: Project Icarus, Project Daedalus, Interstellar Travel, Interstellar technology, interstellar propulsion, travel to the stars — Project Icarus

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:25:58 +0000

[...] As can be easily seen even distant Eris, the former Tenth Planet, can be reached in a little over 3 months for just 960 tons propellant. The most difficult flight to Mars needs a mere 60 tons of propellant to deliver 500 tons of space-vehicle and its 500 ton payload. For comparison, the nuclear-propelled Integrated Manned Interplanetary Spacecraft (ref. Encyclopedia Astronautica), flying to Mars and back on 420 day missions were extensively studied in the 1960s. They typically required 1226 tons of materials in Earth orbit, used 873 tons propellant, and carried only 110 tons of payload, accommodating 6 crew persons. Since the shutdown of the NERVA program in the early 1970s nuclear rocket technology has essentially stagnated. More recent VASIMR plasma-rocket technology requires 476 tons of propellant to deliver 124 tons of space-vehicle in 39 days to Mars, while requiring 200 megawatts of power from a Magnetohydrodynamic generator fed by a gas-core reactor, itself a technology almost as difficult to achieve as the “Daedalus” fusion engine. [...]

By: Interstellar Navigation, Project Icarus, Project Daedalus, Interstellar propulsion, starship, fusion drive, fusion propulsion — Project Icarus

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:34:22 +0000

[...] get too close the relative motion becomes too great). Interestingly, it now looks possible that Icarus may include some deceleration or perhaps some elements might even go in to orbit which will remove [...]

By: Antimatter Propulsion, Antimatter starship, Antimatter spacecraft, antimatter catalyzed fusion — Project Icarus

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:15:41 +0000

[...] be required and this might provide an alternative method for liberating energy from fusion. Because Icarus must use current, or near technology, it is possible that Icarus will utilize this form of [...]

By: Project Icarus, fusion proplsion, pulsed fusion engine, Nuclear Propulsion, Nuclear Engine — Project Icarus

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:45:53 +0000

[...] experienced based chemical fuels to highly speculative proposals such as the space drive. So when Project Icarus was put together, why did the team settle on ‘mainly fusion based propulsion’ in the [...]

By: Daedalus | The Daedalus Project | Project Daedalus | Daedalus Starship | Nuclear Propulsion | Nuclear Rocket — Project Icarus

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:02:45 +0000

[...] Project Icarus, a Nuclear Starship [...]

By: The Fermi Paradox, Project Daedalus, Project Icarus — Project Icarus

The Fermi Paradox, Project Daedalus, Project Icarus — Project Icarus — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:16:09 +0000

[...] Project Icarus a Starship for the 21st Century [...]

By: Twitted by dudegalea

Twitted by dudegalea — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:43:10 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by dudegalea [...]

By: Tweets that mention Project Icarus | Fusion Propusion | Interstellar Spacecraft | The Daedalus Project — Project Icarus -- Topsy.com

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:40:56 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Pat Galea, Project Icarus. Project Icarus said: Project Icarus: A design for an interstellar space craft http://bit.ly/7bULAR [...]