Robert W. Bussard

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Robert W. Bussard (born 1928) is an American physicist working primarily in nuclear fusion energy research. Recipient of the Schreiber-Spence Achievement Award for STAIF-2004.^[1] Fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics.

1 Scientific and industrial career
2 Recent activities
3 Notes

[edit] Scientific and industrial career

[edit] Ramjet

In 1960, Bussard conceived of the Bussard ramjet, an interstellar space drive powered by hydrogen fusion using hydrogen collected using a magnetic field from the interstellar gas. Due to the presence of high-energy particles throughout space, most interstellar hydrogen exists in an ionized state that can be manipulated by magnetic or electric fields. Bussard proposed using a large magnet to "scoop" up the ionized hydrogen and funnel it into a fusion reactor, using the exhaust from the reactor as a rocket engine. Since it picked up its fuel from space, there was no apparent upper limit to the speed such a craft could achieve. However it appears the "energy gain" in the reactor must be extremely high for the ramjet to work at all; any hydrogen picked up by the scoop must be sped up to the same speed as the ship in order to provide thrust, and the energy required to do so increases with the ship's speed.

[edit] Atomic Energy Commission

In the early 1970s Bussard became Assistant Director under Director Robert Hirsch at the Controlled Thermonuclear Reaction Division of what was then known as the Atomic Energy Commission. They founded the mainline fusion program for the United States: the Tokamak. Later, in June 1995, Bussard claimed in a letter to all fusion laboratories as well as to key members of US Congress, that he, along with the other founders of the program, supported the Tokamak not out of conviction that it was the best technical approach but rather as a vehicle for generating political support, thereby allowing them to pursue "all the hopeful new things the mainline labs would not try".[1]

[edit] International Nuclear Energy Systems Corporation

With fellow researcher Bruno Coppi, Bussard later founded Inesco, a private firm funded in part by Penthouse Magazine publisher Bob Guccione. Inesco set out to build small power-producing Tokamak fusion reactors called Riggatrons using methods developed from the MIT Alcator research tokamaks. The method they were trying to use in order to initiate fusion proved vastly more difficult to achieve than they had anticipated and Inesco eventually shut down when its funds ran out.

[edit] Energy Matter Conversion Corporation

Bussard later founded another company, Energy Matter Conversion Corporation (EMC²), which has engaged in research on variants of the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor. In an article entitled "The World's Simplest Fusion Reactor: How To Make It Work" in the December 12, 1998 issue of Analog magazine, fusion researcher Tom Ligon described an easily-built demonstration fusor system, and some of Bussard's ideas for fusion reactors and incredibly efficient spacecraft propulsion systems, which could enable single-stage spacecraft to travel anywhere in the Solar System in short times compared to chemical rockets. Most of Bussard's work in the 1990s and early 2000s was on an gridless inertial electrostatic fusion concept called Polywell.

[edit] Recent activities

On March 29, 2006, Bussard claimed on the fusor.net forum that EMC² had developed an inertial electrostatic confinement fusion process that was 100,000 times more efficient than previous designs.^[2] However, the company's funding ran out, and Bussard is looking for additional funding to develop a full-scale fusion power plant. On June 23, 2006, Bussard provided more details of the breakthrough and the circumstances of the shutdown of this work by the government.^[3] In November of 2006, Bussard held a Tech Talk at Google on his research and development of IEC fusion reactors.^[4] An informal overview^[5] of the last decade of work was presented at the 57th International Astronautical Congress in October 2006.