[ExI] Use Fusion Drive To Get To Proxima Centauri

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
Sent: Sunday, 6 July, 2025 1:15 PM

Subject: [ExI] Use Fusion Drive To Get To Proxima Centauri

How To Use Fusion To Get To Proxima Centauri's Potentially Habitable Exoplanet By Andy Tomaswick - July 6, 2025

<https://www.universetoday.com/articles/how-to-use-fusion-to-get-to-proxima-centauris-potentially-habitable-exoplanet>
Quote:
That was the thought behind the Master’s Thesis of Amelie Lutz at Virginia Tech - she looked at the possibility of using fusion propulsion systems to send a few hundred kilogram probe to the system, and potentially even orbit it.
The winning solution, according to her thesis, is a fusion driven rocket (FDR) configuration using D-He3 as a fuel source. By her calculations, such a system could arrive in the Proxima Centauri system and begin orbiting its target planet in around 57 years.
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>...This is all speculation, of course, as a fusion drive hasn't been invented yet.
But it could happen in a possible future.
BillK

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Thanks BillK!

A system like this is plausible, but getting there in 57 years strains my imagination.  I will look over the thesis, see if I see anything obvious.  Dropping into Prox' orbit after a few hundred years is more believable than getting into orbit of one of its planets.

spike