Lifeboat Foundation

A leading Russian space research center has posted a video of its nuclear-powered rocket, that will be able to land on Mars after seven months, and can be re-launched into space just 48 hours after landing.

“A mission to Mars is possible in the very near future, but that’s not an aim in itself. Our engines can be the foundation for a whole range of space missions that currently seem like science fiction,” Vladimir Koshlakov, who heads Moscow’s Keldysh Research Center told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The institute, which is famous for developing the Katyusha rocket launched during World War II, has been working on what it says is a “unique” propulsion system since 2009. From past descriptions, it comprises a gas-cooled fission reactor that powers a generator, which in turn feeds a plasma thruster.

Continue reading “‘Unlike us, Elon Musk is using old tech’: Russia shows off reusable NUKE ENGINE for Mars mission” »

A team of Chinese researchers has conducted an experiment that is nicknamed the “Chinese artificial sun” using the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) fusion device. The EAST device has been conducting a four-month-long experiment with the goal of seeing how hot the electron temperature inside the fusion device could be. The scientists were able to achieve an electron temperature in the core plasma of over 100 million degrees.

Nuclear engine (aka YaEDU):

A key component of Russia’s future nuclear space propulsion system, which may revolutionize long-range exploration of the solar system, has been successfully tested, RIA Novosti reported.

Continue reading “Russia ‘tests’ key piece of nuclear space engine to revolutionize long-range missions” »

Professor Gérard Mourou says he may be able to show results in 10–15 years that will transform the future of nuclear power.

This technology may someday power spacecraft, satellites, high-flying drones, and pacemakers.

Planets can ‘discover’ nuclear power on their own, naturally, without any intelligence. Earth did it 1.7 billion years before humans.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems a spinout from MIT has received additional funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures (which investment from billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Mukesh Ambani, and Richard Branson).

Commonwealth Fusion Systems will use new superconducting materials to make far stronger magnets for a smaller Tokamak fusion system. The planned fusion experiment, called Sparc, is set to be far smaller – about 1/65th of the volume – than that of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, an international collaboration.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ portfolio company @CFS_energy is building on decades of government-funded research to accelerate the path toward clean, limitless commercial fusion energy. #cleanenergy https://www.cfs.energy/

Continue reading “Commonwealth Fusion stronger magnet tokomak gets billionaire funding” »

Transatomic Power, an MIT spinout that drew wide attention and millions in funding, is shutting down almost two years after the firm backtracked on bold claims for its design of a molten-salt reactor.

High hopes: The company, founded in 2011, plans to announce later today that it’s winding down.

Transatomic had claimed its technology could generate electricity 75 times more efficiently than conventional light-water reactors, and run on their spent nuclear fuel. But in a white paper published in late 2016, it backed off the latter claim entirely and revised the 75 times figure to “more than twice,” a development first reported by MIT Technology Review.

Continue reading “A nuclear startup will fold after failing to deliver reactors that run on spent fuel” »

Japan has spent decades building a facility to turn nuclear waste into nuclear fuel, but neighbors fear it has other plans for its plutonium.