The use of nuclear fusion to halve the time spacecraft take to reach Mars is “inevitable”, the boss of a British firm leading the charge in the technology says. Pulsar Fusion has unveiled its “Sunbird” concept, an innovative means of propulsion that promises to redefine space travel as we know it and bring dreams of a spacefaring future a step closer. He compared the way Sunbird works to a “Boris bike”, the nickname given to the first wave of hire bicycles that appeared in London during former PM Boris Johnson‘s time as mayor of the capital.
The company’s founder and CEO Richard Dinan said the giant leaps made in harnessing fusion’s power will soon be impossible to ignore, dramatically cutting the time it could take for spacecraft to reach distant planets. Speaking to the Express, Dinan said he believes “milestones we have already achieved to me mean that this technology is inevitable”. “Humanity will find this technology irresistible”, he continued, “because we have this itch to innovate, we are constantly pushing things into space,” and nuclear fusion is already a technology available to us.
He added that “unless we get hit by an asteroid tomorrow, you can be sure we’ll be using nuclear propulsion in space”.
Dinan explained that the tech is “based on very well understood physics coming from within the fusion energy world, which is very different technology to combustion rockets”, which launch things into space.
“Pulsar is all about building engines for satellites in a vacuum,” which would only work outside our atmosphere.
Combustion rockets are necessary to get to space in the first place, and Dinan says Pulsar’s designs and technology would “never be able to replace that because they wouldn’t work in the atmosphere”, but it would provide a far more effective source of propulsion once there.
Dinan argues that, “if we really are going to be the species who talk about going to Mars”, or even Saturn, “setting fire to things is a ludicrous method of transport”.
“The amount of fuel is unbelievable”, producing an “awesome amount of CO2 emissions”, he added. Dinan acknowledges that these rockets, used by the likes of Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, are necessary to get rockets to Space in future, but dramatically reducing weight will be key for long trips in future.
“Because the more weight you have to launch into space, the more fuel it takes and the more fuel: the more weight,” he continued.
“So the whole equation goes against you and you end up with these massive rockets with huge amounts of fuel which need massive amounts of fuel to push the fuel up there, and a really expensive rocket equation.”
One alternative once the rocket’s in space is harnessing electric propulsion, which Dinan says is “very good, but not quick” and needs a long time to accelerate.
Another option is Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP), a process that harnesses nuclear fission and which Pulsar is also investing in.
But he believes the best form of propulsion is nuclear fusion. And while the idea of using the technology in this way may have once seemed fanciful, with starships boasting increasing payloads, it’s now “very feasible to put fusion reactors in space”, Dinan argues.
“But more importantly, they work better” among the stars, he says. “Fusion is not something that’s meant to work in the atmosphere”, while space is the “perfect environment for fusion”.
“All we’re trying to do is use strong force from nuclear, which humans are very good at doing, to create the fastest exhaust speed potential.”
Sunbird is powered by the firm’s in-development Duel Direct Fusion Drive (DDFD) a compact nuclear fusion engine that would briefly become the hottest place in the solar system and unleash exhaust speeds of 500,000mph.
Its Hall Effect Thrusters would generate thrust by blasting out neutral plasma, and the company says with fixed supplies of the helium-3 fuel mix it runs off, refuelling wouldn’t be neccessary – even across large distances.
The Pulsar Fusion technology would hitch a ride on a rocket, like those developed by SpaceX or Blue Origin, to exit our atmosphere, where it would remain to be used by other rockets when needed.
Dinan said one such trip would enable the company to make back the costs of its journey to space, and foresees having a few of the heavily-shielded craft hanging in orbit at any one time.
If they prove able to last for two or three missions in space, Dinan said they would be “very economical”.
“Pulsar has had 13 years in nuclear fusion propulsion research, we’ve teamed up with the best people in the world for academic studies, and we think that the interest in space and nuclear, and fusion is all going to be exponential. So I hope we’re in the right place at the right time,” he said.
“The idea is completely novel, you won’t have seen the application of it in the way that Sunbird is presented.”
According to Dinan, a trip to Mars with a SpaceX rocket, “you’re looking at about seven to eight months or about 240 days”.
“With a Sunbird it’s about 120 days and your big savings are about 2,700 tonnes of methane, you’d save about 7,600 tonnes of C02 on launch (that’s C02 going into Earth’s environment), and about 41,000 barrels of liquid methane.
“The cost-save in total is about $150million (£116.3million) per mission to Mars,” he added.
Pulsar Fusion, which is headquartered in Bletchley, has been developing Sunbird in secret and finally unveiled it publicly at Space-Comm EXPO on March 11th at ExCeL London
A video on its website offers preview of how the sci-fi-worthy craft would work, as well as its sleek design. The firm says it is “rapidly advancing toward in-orbit testing, with components of the system’s power supply set for demonstration later this year”, with hopes of an in-orbit demonstration in 2027. They envisage a production-ready Sunbird being ready as soon as the early 2030s.
