Powering the interplanetary trade ships of the 23rd-24th century

Let's just take antimatter off the table right now. As I've learned recently, it's hard to make, expensive as hell and even more volatile, and you can never get more energy out of it than you put into making it, making it the Samsung Note 7 battery of future energy solutions.

With that out of the way, what do you think people will be using to fuel their interplanetary ships 200-300 years from now, assuming we're sticking to currently understood methods? I see two big contenders, and I'd like to know which you think is more likely to actually happen. Will they use fusion rockets and hydrogen scoops like the Bussard ramjet? Or will they stick to the much cruder but simpler (and probably more cost effective) method of nuclear pulse propulsion like Project Orion?

The way I see it, fusion power frees up more space for cargo and uses fuel that is essentially omnipresent and free throughout the universe, however containment failure in your fusion reactor is an ever present danger and a threat to the safety of the crew. Meanwhile, nuclear pulse propulsion isn't quite as green but can accelerate ships of a large mass (8000000 t) to significant percentages of lightspeed in under 10 days using bombs that, depending on their yield, can be considered relatively small. The technology involved is also simpler and much more foolproof than outfitting a spaceship with its own fusion reactor, and your propulsion system doubles as a weapon, meaning every ship could technically be considered a warship if the situation ever arises where it needs to defend itself.

What do you think?

posted over 7 years ago

Z.Schroeder‭

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