Mars colony breakthrough: Nuclear technology could halve journey times to the Red Planet

Scientists spearheaded by Richard Dinan – who featured in the reality show in 2012 – have started to build Britain’s largest privately owned nuclear fusion facility which will generate a plasma temperature hotter than the surface of the Sun at a site in Buckinghamshire. The secret location near Bletchley, home to World War 2’s codebreakers, is being developed by Pulsar Fusion, a company fronted by Mr Dinan. Mr Dinan told Express.co.uk he was hoping he and his team would be able to generate plasma temperatures of 100,000,000C by September 2019.

Mr Dinan told Express.co.uk he was hoping he and his team would be able to generate plasma temperatures of 100,000,000C by September 2019.

He added: “Fusion offers exhaust speeds much faster than possible with combustion rockets and with more power than ion thrusters. These can halve mission times to Mars.

“If humanity is ever going to achieve the dream of traveling beyond our solar system, we absolutely need fusion rockets.”

Mr Dinan and his team have shipped in state of the art equipment from around the world to fit out the new 10,000 square foot facility.

He is confident they will achieve the temperature target within the next three months which means they have created matter hot enough to replicate the temperature of the Sun right here in the UK.

US billionaire and SpaceX boss Elon Musk has outline ambitious plans to colonise Mars in the next decade, while Professor Brian Cox told Express.co.uk earlier this year the Red Planet was a vital staging post in the exploration of the wider universe.

Mr Dinan said fusion rockets hold the potential to halve journey times to Mars and even offer humanity the ability to leave our solar system.

The new technology will allow nuclear fusion to fuel propulsion, revolutionising space exploration with the tantalising possibility of travelling to planets in days rather than months, he said.

Mr Dinan also rejected comparisons with cold fusion, a hypothesised type of nuclear reaction which would occur at, or near, room temperature which scientists Dr. Stanley Pons and Dr. Martin Fleischmann claimed to have developed in a 1989 experiment – the results of which they were never able to replicate.

He said: “Cold fusion is nothing like hot fusion and there is no scenario of a chain reaction like those discovered in fission.

“Fusion is totally safe clean and yet more powerful then any other known energy source.

He added: “It’s incredibly exciting to watch our plans and preparations come together to create something quite literally out of this world.

“Within three months from now we fully expect to reach first plasma, which in layman’s terms means we will have a device with a core temperature which replicates that of the sun.

“Not only does nuclear fusion have the potential to solve the world’s energy crisis but it will also lead to countless other technological innovations not least the tantalising possibility of high speed space travel.

“Nuclear has a bad name because humans initially used its power to create weapons, but there is a totally safe, clean other side to it that is demonstrated by the stars.

“The same technology that allowed us to do the worst thing we have ever done, will give us the ability to do the best thing we will ever do, generate abundant, powerful clean energy.

“Pulsar Fusion was set up out of a relationship with a lot of nuclear physicists who know the science is there now.

“Why should something that is possible today wait for tomorrow?”

source: express.co.uk