The QED engine system: Direct‐electric fusion‐powered rocket propulsion systems

Practical ground‐to‐orbit and inter‐orbital space flights both require propulsion systems of large flight‐path‐averaged specific impulse (Isp) and engine system thrust‐to‐mass‐ratio (F/me=[F]) for useful payload and structure fractions in single‐stage vehicles (Hunter 1966). Current rocket and air‐breathing engine technologies lead to enormous vehicles and small payloads; a natural result of the limited specific energy available from chemical reactions. While nuclear energy far exceeds these specific energy limits (Bussard and DeLauer 1958), the inherent high‐Isp advantages of fission propulsion concepts for space and air‐breathing flight (Bussard and DeLauer 1965) are negated for manned systems by the massive radiation shielding required by their high radiation output (Bussard 1971). However, there are well‐known radiation‐free nuclear fusion reactions (Gross 1984) between isotopes of selected light elements (such as H+11B, D+3He) that yield only energetic charged particles, whose energy can be converted...