From Earth to Mars in half the time: This nuclear rocket would be the fastest object ever built

A U.K. company is aiming to slash space travel times by creating a rocket that harnesses nuclear energy to achieve unprecedented speeds.

What is the nuclear-fusion rocket called?

Pulsar Fusion, a space propulsion firm based in Bletchley, England, is attempting to develop a nuclear fusion-powered rocket known as the Sunbird.

A propulsion system that would attach to a spacecraft in Earth orbit, then carry the craft to its destination, the Sunbird has the potential to cut the journey time to Mars in half, Pulsar claims.

According to NASA, the U.S.’s federal space agency, the trip to the Red Planet takes around seven to 10 months with currently available technology.

“To leave our planetary neighbourhood and to live on other worlds, a propulsion and power source that delivers at scale is needed,” Pulsar says in a mission statement on its website. “Fusion is the best choice.”

The company, which already provides other space-propulsion systems using current rocket and electric technology, says it is targeting the deployment of its fusion concept “in the near future”.

Speaking at an unveiling event last month, Pulsar’s founder and CEO, Richard Dinan, said the firm wants to carry out its first test of “some of the key components” of the Sunbird project in Earth orbit in 2027.

What is nuclear fusion? How does it work?

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the Sun. Were it to be successfully recreated on our planet, it would offer enormous energy-generation potential.

Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declares: “If nuclear fusion can be replicated on earth, it could provide virtually limitless clean, safe and affordable energy to meet the world’s energy demand.”

The IAEA explains that nuclear fusion is a process whereby the nuclei of two atoms are combined into one, by having them collide at very high temperatures. In the process of fusion, energy is released in huge quantities.

“With just a few grams of these reactants, it is possible to produce a terajoule of energy, which is approximately the energy one person in a developed country needs over sixty years,” says the IAEA.

Current nuclear power plants on Earth use a different process known as nuclear fission. Fission involves splitting, rather than combining, the nuclei of atoms.

While fission uses radioactive, highly dangerous substances such as uranium, fusion involves safer materials.

Normally, the goal of nuclear fusion is to combine deuterium and tritium - two heavy types of hydrogen - albeit in the case of the Sunbird, Pulsar aims to fuse deuterium and helium-3, a rare helium isotope.

Fusion eludes us on Earth, but could it be easier in space?

Although scientists continue to be bamboozled by the challenge of harnessing nuclear fusion for power-generation on Earth, says Dinan, the low temperatures and natural vacuum of space offer conditions that may be more conducive to achieving fusion on board the Sunbird.

“It’s very unnatural to do fusion on Earth,” he told CNN’s Jacopo Prisco. “Fusion doesn’t want to work in an atmosphere. Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that’s where it wants to happen anyway.”

And how would Sunbird create propulsion with fusion?

As Prisco explains, a key feature of the Sunbird’s design is that, while Earth-based attempts at nuclear fusion require an enclosed reactor, the rocket’s design would allow particles to escape during fusion. As these particles escape, they would generate propulsion in the process.

This is a less complicated way of trying to achieve fusion, Dinan told CNN.

How fast could the Sunbird travel?

It is estimated that the Sunbird would be able to reach speeds of around 500,000 miles per hour.

So far, the fastest spacecraft humans have ever built is NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which managed a peak velocity of 430,000 miles per hour.

In addition to Mars, other potential Sunbird destinations noted by Pulsar is the dwarf planet Pluto, which the planned rocket would potentially reach in four years, the company says.

NASA’s New Horizons craft, which launched in 2006, took just under a decade to make it to Pluto, which is located in the Kuiper Belt, on the outskirts of our solar system.

“No other technology we know of”

Ultimately, says Dinan, Pulsar’s objective is not only to speed up travel within our cosmic backyard, but also to enable interstellar flight.

“If we’re going to leave our solar system within a human lifetime, there is no other technology that we know of that can do that,” he told an interview with Tech Crunch in 2023.

If you want to take a closer look at the design of the Sunbird, check out this interactive guide on Pulsar Fusion’s website.

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