The speed and heat of interplanetary travel could be increasing.
UK-based startup Pulsar Fusion unveiled today “Sunbird,” an innovative nuclear fusion rocket concept that could reduce the time required to travel across our solar systems — and maybe beyond.
Machine-learning models show that the rocket could propel a spacecraft weighing about 1,000kg (2200lb) all the way to Pluto in just four years – less than half of the time it would take NASA’s New Horizons was powered by regular ion-thrusters. Earth to Mars? Earth to Mars? Earth to Saturn? Two years.
Instead of launching from Earth every time, several Sunbirds will be “docked” on low-Earth orbit and ready to attach to other spacecraft to propel them deeper into cosmos. Sunbird would be equipped with a Duel Direct Fusion Drive, a compact nuclear-fusion engine that could provide both thrust as well as electrical power to spacecraft. Pulsar began building the engine in 2023 on a site located in Milton Keynes, England. The company stated that static tests will begin in 2025, followed by a “In Orbit Demonstration (IOD)” of the core technologies components in 2027. The engine can temporarily become the hottest spot in the solar system when it is fired. This could result in exhaust speeds exceeding 500,000mph (804672km/h).
Pulsar, founded in 2011, has spent more than a decade researching fusion. The company has also been developing two other products simultaneously: an electric thruster with Hall-effect for spacecrafts and a second stage hybrid rocket engine. Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar, said that the company has a reputation for delivering real technology – not just talking about. “We’ve just commissioned two of the largest space-propulsion testing chambers, if not in Europe, and we have ambitious growth plans from here.” The company has teamed with Princeton Satellite Systems, based in the US, to predict how plasma will behave under electromagnetic confinement. The rocket engine design will be guided by machine learning simulations.
Pulsar received funding from UK Space Agency in 2022 to develop a nuclear fission based propulsion, along with the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, and Cambridge University.Published
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