Magnetically insulated inertial confinement concept for a deep space mission

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given. The magnetically insulated inertial confinement (MICF) concept can open up the solar system and beyond to human space exploration. In this concept a core of plasma is created at the center of a hollow shell by bombarding the fuel-coated inner surface with a laser or particle beam that enters the shell through a hole. The ablated electrons form current loops which in turn give rise to a strong magnetic field that serves to thermally insulate the plasma from the solid wall. Because of the thermal insulation provided by the magnetic field, this confinement time is relatively long, /spl sim/10/sup -7/ seconds, allowing the plasma to burn for a long time and to generate very large energy gains. As a propulsion system it is envisioned that MICF pellets will be dropped in a reaction chamber at a pre-determined rate and zapped with a laser or particle beam to initiate the fusion reaction. At the end of the fusion burn, particles are ejected by a magnetic nozzle to produce thrust. Preliminary analysis has shown that the MICF propulsion system is capable of producing specific impulses on the order of 10/sup 6/ seconds and thrust of tens of hundreds of kilonewtons. Such a capability makes not only the most distant planet in the solar system but also the nearest star reachable in a human´s lifetime.