The Bussard Ramjet drive has been proven not to work, but laying out a runway of fuel could work. This has been examined in more detail.
Fuel is deliberately emplaced in the path of the spacecraft before the flight. Kare proposed that, at the velocities proposed for interstellar flight, nuclear fusion can be accomplished at the temperatures produced by impact, and proposed a propulsion system he tagged the “Bussard Buzz-bomb”. Analysis shows, however, that Kare’s initial concept is only plausible if the pellets can be pre-compressed before impact, a process which would have great difficulty to implement. A more detailed variant of the impact-fusion runway will be presented, and the major difficulties to this approach discussed. By going faster than 1245 kilometers per second first, we can start the passing over the fuel runway and have fuel explode at impact into fusion.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
