Plasma physics of starships

Summary form only given. Over the last 5 years several new private organizations, dedicated to research towards starships, have developed concepts for such ships. The concepts fall into two broad classes: fusion rockets and sails driven by directed energy beams. All concepts use some aspect of plasma physics: For fusion rockets, to give the exhaust velocities required for interstellar travel. To drive ultra-light reflecting sails, coherent arrays of high power microwave, millimeter or laser sources. The talk begins with a treatment of the difficulties and mission requirements of interstellar travel. This talk reviews recent work, including Project Icarus, the just-completed fusion rocket, and Project Forward, a photon-beam-driven starship. Performance and technical issues that they face are outlined.