Robert W. Buzzard

Robert W. Bussard [ bʊˈsɑɹd ] (born August 11, 1928 in New York ; † October 6, 2007 in Santa Fe , New Mexico ) was an American physicist who studied nuclear fusion .

With the Bussard drive ( English Bussard ramjet ; ramjet = ramjet ), he designed a hypothetical rocket drive for interstellar space flight in 1960 , which is to use interstellar hydrogen to operate a fusion reactor, which in turn drives the spaceship.

Bussard and his colleague Bruno Coppi founded the International Nuclear Energy Systems Corporation (Inesco), whose goal was to develop small tokamak fusion reactors that used a method based on research at MIT to ignite the reaction. Bob Guccione , founder and editor of the men's magazine Penthouse , invested several million dollars in the company. The attempt to put the company on the stock exchange in 1984 failed. The research program was taken over by the United States Department of Energy and continued by Princeton University under the name TNX (The Next Step).

Together founded with his wife Dolly H. Gray Hawk in 1987, the company Energy / Matter Conservation Corporation (EMC²) with the aim of using electrostatic inertial confinement systems (Engl. Inertial electrostatic confinement IEC) to achieve fusion reactions to explore. The company received substantial funding from the US Navy and has received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

In the science fiction series Star Trek , spaceships have buzzard collectors to collect hydrogen for warp propulsion . These are named after Robert W. Bussard. "Bussard Ramjets" also play a major role in Larry Niven's science fiction universe .

Web links

Anne Constable: Robert Bussard, 1928–2007: Physicist known for pusuit of nuclear fusion. March 11, 2007, archived from the original on September 19, 2008 .; Retrieved January 1, 1970
Mark Duncan: Should Google Go Nuclear? (PDF; 1.9 MB) December 24, 2008 (English).; accessed on November 12, 2018
Alan Boyle: Fusion we can believe in? December 16, 2008, archived from the original on December 17, 2008 .; Retrieved January 1, 1970

Individual evidence

^ Robert W. Bussard: A quick history of the EMC2 Polywell IEF concept. ( Microsoft Word ) Energy / Matter Conversion Corporation, February 2006, archived from the original on July 17, 2011 ; accessed on February 6, 2011 .

personal data
SURNAME	Bussard, Robert W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 11, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	new York
DATE OF DEATH	October 6, 2007
Place of death	Santa Fe (New Mexico)

[quick-1] Robert W. Bussard: A quick history of the EMC2 Polywell IEF concept. ( Microsoft Word ) Energy / Matter Conversion Corporation, February 2006, archived from the original on July 17, 2011 ; accessed on February 6, 2011 .