Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar

A Dipole Approach to Fusion Power in Space

Date: Monday, October 26th

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall

Speaker: Edward Hinson, Zephyr Fusion

Abstract: Access to power beyond tens of kilowatts remains a central constraint on activity in space. Numerous mission architectures studied in detail for microgravity manufacturing, human habitation, and propulsion, among others, call for power at the megawatt scale and above. However, the largest power systems in orbit are solar arrays operating at the 100 to 200 kW level, on crewed, government-operated platforms. Because array power scales with collecting area, arrays become impractically large at megawatt power levels. At the megawatt scale and above, the remaining options are nuclear. Fission systems at the few-kilowatt electric level have flown, and megawatt-class designs have been studied, but fission carries regulatory and programmatic risk. Fusion has received comparatively little study as a space power source.

Fusion plasmas in space do not need to be as compact, or as high power as is customary in magnetic fusion, though launched components are bound by fairing volume and mass. For some magnetic configurations, the space environment can provide access to a large magnetized vacuum volume at low marginal cost. Zephyr Fusion is developing a superconducting dipole as the basis for a megawatt-class fusion power system in space.

The talk outlines the requirements and advantages specific to a fusion system in the space environment, along with Zephyr Fusion's development path, including the partnerships assembled in its first year and an orbital superconducting magnet demonstration targeted for 2028.

Bio: Edward Hinson is co-founder and CEO of Zephyr Fusion, a Y Combinator company based in San Diego, California. He received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2015.

Host: Vladimir Zhdankin

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