Direct Fusion Drive Rocket for Asteroid Deflection

Traditional thinking presumes that planetary defense is only achievable with years of warning, so that a mission can launch in time to deflect the asteroid. However, the danger posed by hard-to-detect small meteors was dramatically demonstrated by the 20 meter Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 with the force of 440 kilotons of TNT. A 5-MW Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) engine allows rockets to rapidly reach threatening asteroids that and deflect them using clean burning deuterium-helium-3 fuel, a compact field-reversed configuration, and heated by odd-parity rotating magnetic fields. This paper presents the latest development of the DFD rocket engine based on recent simulations and experiments as well as calculations for an asteroid deflection envelope and a mission plan to deflect an Apophis-type asteroid given just one year of warning. Armed with this new defense technology, we will finally have achieved a vital capability for ensuring our planet’s safety from impact threats.