WizWom wrote:Even in LEO, the vacuum is much lower than you can get on Earth.
Your polywell in space for space only work does not need a vacuum chamber. All you need is the core, and your energy grid. And a simple reflector system on one hemisphere will allow it to produce thrust - and, incidentally, serves as primary shielding.
Owing to this, you need only be at the diameter of the core - 1 to 1.5 meters, and then you can use an extending shield/thrust plate.
Its likely you could fit an interplanetary craft with a polywell power source into a space shuttle easily. The Ares V should also have no trouble. Make it structurally capable of lunar landing, and a couple tons of equipment allows fueling from lunar ice.
And then you can go anywhere you please, as power and rocket mass are both effectively unlimited.
You overlook the fact that in LEO the reactor will need 360 degrees of debris shielding if you want to keep it functional.
As for the rest... that's blue-sky projects...
... btw a BA-330 modified into a polywell power module could fly on a Spacex Falcon 9 years sooner than on the Ares V... assuming that the Ares V can get itself uncanceled
Now there's nothing wrong with blue-sky projects at all but the point of FOOF is to get the much-needed spaceborne fusion experience that will prove the blue-sky projects feasible and make them much easier to implement.
FOOF does this by filling a need on orbit for abundant power that's immensely cheaper than solar, vastly easier to manage than solar, and much more easily protected against debris damage than solar.
Thus my question: can a polywell operate at net power in the 100-150 kW output range? That would make it plug'n'play with current spacecraft power systems and reduce its heat output to something current spacecraft cooling systems can handle.
And thus also my followup question: can such a low-level reactor be dialed up to higher power levels as more advanced cooling systems are developed and brought online?
... btw... Bigelow has updated their site and the new information indicates that the interior
diameter of the BA-330 is 6.7 meters... this would make fitting a polywell installation and associated gear into a BA-330 much easier ...