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A year in orbit: ISS deployment tests radiation detectors for future space missions
The predawn darkness on a cool Florida night was shattered by the ignition of nine Merlin engines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The thrust of the engines shook the ground miles away. From a distance, the rocket appeared to slowly rise above the horizon. For the cargo onboard, the launch was anything but gentle, as the ignition of liquid oxygen generated more than 1.5 million pounds of force. After the rocket had been out of sight for several minutes, the booster dramatically returned to Earth with several sonic booms in a captivating show of engineering designed to make space travel less expensive and more sustainable.
John E. Massidda, Mujid S. Kazimi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 614-618
Blanket and First-Wall Engineering | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40107
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An investigation aimed at identifying methods of flattening the power distribution in D-T blankets has been carried out. Three methods were identified which when used in conjunction produce power distributions which are significantly flatter than those produced by typical blankets. The peak-to-average power density ratio is reduced by over 50%, and the peak-to minimum power fall-off is reduced by a factor of five. Power flattened blankets achieve tritium breeding ratios and blanket multiplication which could be somewhat higher than those of typical blanket designs.