[Gardamorg]

Bussard Ramjet

Solar Sail

Nuclear Pulse

Nuclear Fusion Powered Spacecraft

[Gardamorg]

Bussard Ramjet is the fastest, therefore it has my unconditional, unchangeable vote.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Gardamorg

Bussard Ramjet

Solar Sail

Nuclear Pulse

Nuclear Fusion Powered Spacecraft

You forgot the two best ones.

BRUCE BEHRHORST ARTICLE LIST

Magnetic sail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Gardamorg]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

You forgot the two best ones.

BRUCE BEHRHORST ARTICLE LIST

Magnetic sail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't know what the first one is, but the magsail seems very primitive compared to Nuclear fusion powered spacecrafts, nuclear pulse, and especially the Bussard Ramjet.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Gardamorg

Bussard Ramjet is the fastest, therefore it has my unconditional, unchangeable vote.

The main problems with the bussard ram jet is that the concepts that allow it to work are not doable at this time and maybe never doable. Fusion power using simple hydrogen is the most difficult way to make fusion power and may be impossible in any way that could be used by a space craft. The idea of gathering interstellar hydrogen via a magnetic field is not possible without some way of giving the interstellar hydrogen some level of electrical charge. Various ways of doing this have been proposed but none of them have been tested even in the laboratory. So many new and completely unknown technologies would have to come together for a interstellar fusion ramjet I would have to rate it least likely to ever be used.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Gardamorg

I don't know what the first one is, but the magsail seems very primitive compared to Nuclear fusion powered spacecrafts, nuclear pulse, and especially the Bussard Ramjet.

The mag sail is no more primitive than any of the others, it's a very elegant way to use the solar wind to propel a space craft even to interstellar distances. Nuclear pulse is a very primitive way to propel a space craft, much of the blast is wasted. A fusion powered space craft wouldn't be much better at total thrust than a ion drive. I suggest you read the article about gaseous fission rockets before you dismiss it.

[Gardamorg]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

The main problems with the bussard ram jet is that the concepts that allow it to work are not doable at this time and maybe never doable. Fusion power using simple hydrogen is the most difficult way to make fusion power and may be impossible in any way that could be used by a space craft. The idea of gathering interstellar hydrogen via a magnetic field is not possible without some way of giving the interstellar hydrogen some level of electrical charge. Various ways of doing this have been proposed but none of them have been tested even in the laboratory. So many new and completely unknown technologies would have to come together for a interstellar fusion ramjet I would have to rate it least likely to ever be used.

Isn't the hydrogen condensed and fused into plasma by the Magfield?

Why would you need electrical charge for that?

[Gardamorg]

Originally Posted by Moontanman

The mag sail is no more primitive than any of the others, it's a very elegant way to use the solar wind to propel a space craft even to interstellar distances. Nuclear pulse is a very primitive way to propel a space craft, much of the blast is wasted. A fusion powered space craft wouldn't be much better at total thrust than a ion drive. I suggest you read the article about gaseous fission rockets before you dismiss it.

But the fact that it needs solar wind is a huge draw back for traveling far outside the solar system, and especially for traveling toward a star as opposed to away from it.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Gardamorg

Isn't the hydrogen condensed and fused into plasma by the Magfield?

Why would you need electrical charge for that?

A magnetic field has no effect at all on uncharged hydrogen. To gather the hydrogen via a magnetic field it has to be charged no way around it. To compress the hydrogen and heat it the hydrogen has to be charged. Regular hydrogen is the most difficult to compress and fuse, that why current designs use deuterium and tritium.

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by Gardamorg

But the fact that it needs solar wind is a huge draw back for traveling far outside the solar system, and especially for traveling toward a star as opposed to away from it.

No, actually it is a good thing for traveling toward a star, you have to decelerate, a magnetic field will allow you to decelerate with the target stars own wind. a magnetic sail will power your space craft as far as a solar sail would using star light and even faster because a magnetic sail will expand as it moves away from a star and allow you to get more thrust as you sail away! a magnetic sail doesn't have any problems with erosion from interstellar dust and can be furled and unfurled in a short time with no danger of damaging the sail. A magnetic sail that gets larger as you move away from the star would allow you get thrust a large distance from your sun, and a magnetic sail could interact with the galactic magnetic field to give some thrust. You could build up a large delta V close to a star and then coast to the next one.