The nuclear fusion rocket that could take humans to Mars faster | BBC News

[00:00:01][music] >> It might seem like a sleepy industrial estate in southern England, but this place is all about speed. Now, not down here, up there.

[00:00:14]This is Sunbird, a new type of rocket that could one day move things around space a whole lot quicker.

[00:00:21]And while these [music] are just a concept for now, the tech needed to make them a reality has had its first successful test [music] right here back on Earth.

[00:00:32]>> We want to be able to lean into a propulsion system where once you're in space, the fuels are available.

[00:00:38]>> At the moment, trips to and around space, [music] including the recent Artemis mission to the moon, involve burning big tanks of fuel. But, engineers here at Pulsar are testing something different using nuclear fusion.

[00:00:54]>> The reason rockets right now are so big is because when they launch from the ground, they have to carry all the fuel with them. What we want to achieve is a smaller rocket. So, the smallest possible rocket can leave the ground using combustion fire, which it will do always because it's the right propulsion system in the atmosphere. But, once we get into the vacuum of space, you switch to nuclear.

[00:01:18]And that will give you a an exhaust speed >> [music] >> incomparable to to to fire. So, we're looking at a specific impulse of about 13,000 seconds, um which means half the time to Mars.

[00:01:32]>> Nuclear fusion occurs when the middle bits of two atoms are forced together to release extreme [music] amounts of energy. It's what powers our sun.

[00:01:40]Scientists have been trying to recreate this process for a long time, and there have been some big steps forward. The UK's Atomic Energy Authority has even suggested it could be on the nation's power grid by [music] the 2040s. But, fusion hasn't been used for interplanetary travel, >> [music] >> at least, not yet.

[00:01:59]Earlier this year, a key part of it was shown it could work right here in this room.

[00:02:04]>> Now, we developed the first exhaust infrastructure for a fusion [music] rocket ever.

[00:02:12]And we achieved the first plasma inside it. Lots of pressure at that moment.

[00:02:16]>> Huge pressure.

[00:02:18]>> But, this is what happened.

[00:02:20]>> Yeah.

[00:02:21]>> Shall we play it?

[00:02:21]>> Let's play it.

[00:02:23]And here's first plasma.

[00:02:29]>> Wow.

[00:02:30]>> There's some complicated physics going on here, but essentially, special atoms stored in the engine are made so hot they [music] become no longer a solid, liquid, or gas, but the fourth state of matter called plasma. This soup of highly charged ions and electrons is then forced out through a narrow exhaust creating massive forward thrust.

[00:02:50]>> [music] >> And to be actually hold the plasma in the structure of the exhaust where it should be was I mean I mean really we we were very lucky to have achieved it.

[00:02:59]>> This test had to be done in space-like conditions here on Earth, and that's where this contraption comes in.

[00:03:09]So, you're creating a little pocket of space here in your warehouse.

[00:03:13]>> Exactly right. Yeah, so we suck all the air out of this using a bunch of really interesting expensive pumps, but the the upshot is yeah, you remove as much of the air as you possibly can, and that mimics the vacuum of space.

[00:03:24]>> So, this is an exhaust system for SunBum. It's basically a large array of very powerful electromagnets, and they're there to actually form the plume of the rocket as it leaves the engine.

[00:03:35]Um and so, to drive those you need some fancy high-power power supplies, you need some quite fancy gas feeds to make sure that propellant is fed through at the right rate.

[00:03:46]Um and of course, you need the vacuum chamber, otherwise none of it can work.

[00:03:49]>> Uh and And course, it's quite echoey as you can hear.

[00:03:53]>> And that's because you have to make sure there's nothing else in here.

[00:03:56]>> Yeah, exactly. So, its job is to mimic empty space. So, we try to keep all other equipment in the chamber to an [music] absolute minimum. I'm spotting something in the corner there.

[00:04:04]>> Yeah, normally you don't want little bits of plastic sitting around the vacuum chamber, but um filming Sun Diver was not easy.

[00:04:11]Uh and we actually found one of the best ways to get footage of it was just to stick a GoPro to the [music] inside of the chamber.

[00:04:17]>> Oh, and what's happened to that GoPro, Sam?

[00:04:19]>> The GoPro is not very happy. Uh the the memory card survived, but the camera did not.

[00:04:24]>> [music] >> The team here says this successful test is a major breakthrough, but there's still a long way to go and a lot [music] more test needed. Something that will keep scientists here in Pulsar's control room busy.

[00:04:37]>> Sombrero is something can take us to Mars, to moon, and then it's going to change the industry really dramatically.

[00:04:44]>> What do you want to be doing in the future when it comes to this space?

[00:04:46]>> So, it's really good to feel like we are working on something which is going to have a big impact. And I think I will just stay in this industry, and then I I will see missions to Mars, and then I will see hopefully maybe one day I will be there as well.

[00:04:58]>> It's not just happening here. Avalanche Energy is developing its own version of a fusion-powered [music] spacecraft, while Princeton Satellite Systems in the US is working on a deep space propulsion technology called Star Fire. And with space [music] agencies and the space industry's bigger and bolder plans for a base on the moon and humans on the surface [music] of Mars, humanity will need rockets that keep up with its ambitions.

[00:05:23]>> What the technology is telling us that this is what we do. [music] We we evolve and we we build these technologies which are available to us, and we leave our solar system. We we [music] do start migrating into orbit. Um it seems very natural, strangely. I mean, even though it may look unnatural, all this metal and steel and plasma, but when you see a plasma light up in a vacuum chamber, it's nature just showing you that you're doing something right.