A Titan mission using the Direct Fusion Drive
Marco Gajeri, Paolo Aime, Roman Ya. Kezerashvili

TL;DR
This paper analyzes trajectories for a robotic mission to Titan using the Direct Fusion Drive, highlighting its advantages in payload capacity and travel time due to fusion propulsion capabilities.
Contribution
It introduces a detailed mission analysis utilizing the Direct Fusion Drive for Titan, demonstrating significant improvements in trip duration and payload mass over traditional propulsion methods.
Findings
Trip duration of 2.6 years with thrust-coast-thrust profile
Less than 2 years trip duration with continuous thrust
Enhanced payload capacity and rapid deceleration capability
Abstract
The main purpose of this work is to perform an analysis of realistic new trajectories for a robotic mission to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in order to demonstrate the great advantages related to the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD). The DFD is a D -He fuelled, aneutronic, thermonuclear fusion propulsion system. This fusion propulsion concept is based on a magnetically confined field reversed configuration plasma, where the deuterium propellant is heated by fusion products, and then expanded into a magnetic nozzle, providing both thrust and electrical energy to the spacecraft [1]. The trajectories calculations and analysis for the Titan mission are obtained based on the characteristics provided by the PPPL [1]. Two different profile missions are considered: the first one is a thrust-coast-thrust profile with constant thrust and specific impulse; the second scenario is a continuous and…
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