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Latest News
Russia withdraws from 25-year-old weapons-grade plutonium agreement
Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, approved a measure to withdraw from a 25-year-old agreement with the United States to cut back on the leftover plutonium from Cold War–era nuclear weapons.
Dah Yu Cheng, Dr.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 1991 | Pages 730-734
Space Nuclear Power/Propulsion | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A11946928
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A deep space mission requires a nuclear energy powered system. Since the propellant and the energy source are no longer linked to each other as in a chemical rocket, one would like to have a thruster system which has a high specific impulse and thrust level and a low minimum weight. The Deflagration plasma thruster can fulfill those requirements as a propulsion system for GEO to Mars and beyond. An example of a strawman space ship integration is presented. It is designed for continuous acceleration followed by continuous deceleration in a interplanetary flight path.