Issues for development of inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) for future fusion propulsion

Fusion propulsion is one of the most attractive options for deep space missions. However, “conventional” fusion systems involving magnetic or inertial confinement typically involve heavy auxiliary. Here a radically different approach, inertial electrostatic confinement (DEC) is explored. If the underlying physics for the EEC can be developed without a bottleneck, this offers an extremely attractive approach. In addition to a very high specific impulse and power-to-mass ratio, due to its converging beam nature, the IEC is especially well suited to burning advanced fuels like D-He³ or p-B¹¹ such that neutron-induce radioactivity and shielding requirements are drastically reduced. The basic principles of the DEC, its possible incorporation into space systems, and key physics issues requiring study are described here. A “fast track” development plan for scale up of the present laboratory scale experiments to high power devices is discussed.