Project Daedalus: Visualisation · Signals from the Periphery

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Phase

BOOST · STAGE 1

Mission clock

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Velocity

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Distance

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PROJECT DAEDALUS · THE FUSION STARSHIP
British Interplanetary Society · 1973-1978
two stages, a pulse drive, a fifty-year flyby
54,000 t · 12.2% of c · Barnard's Star, 5.9 ly
Orion's heir: 250 small suns a second
▶ press play to run the fifty years · drag the voyage to scrub

Part

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Evidence

fact ⇄ what kind of claim · live

54,000 t, two stages, 3.81 yr of thrust, 12.2% of c

the 1978 JBIS final report's own mass and burn budget

STUDY

250 D/He-3 pellets/s, electron-beam ICF, magnetic nozzle

exhaust 10,600 km/s · the drive as the report specifies it

STUDY

The curve is the rocket equation; the milestones pin it

Δv = vₑ ln(m₀/m₁), integrated to a distance you can audit

PHYSICS

No brakes: the encounter lasts ~3 days after ~50 years

stopping multiplies launch mass ~31-fold; Freitas: >10 Mt

PHYSICS

The He-3 comes from Jupiter: aerostat mines, ~20 years

a solar-system industry as the starship's precondition

STUDY

Pellet ignition first achieved Dec 2022: gain ~1.5, ~1 shot/day

NIF, with lasers; Daedalus needs 250/s from flying hardware

MEASURED

The drawing: proportions approximate, shield thickened, plume art

this bench's own visual choices, disclosed in the panel

MODELLED

"Feasible in principle": proof of possibility, or of impracticality?

both verdict cards hang in the file; the reading is yours

READING

View

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Mission clock · all views

Years since launch0.80 yr

Scrub the whole mission: burn, staging, cruise, probes, the three-day encounter. The voyage view draws this dial as a chart.

Braking ledgerwhat stopping would cost · voyage view

▶ Playback runs about one year per second. The pulse view's clock speeds are labelled on their own dial.

The drive clock · pulse view

Electron beamsthe driver ring's converging shot

Field linesthe magnetic nozzle, drawn

Display

Labels

Glow

Readout · live from the model

Phase

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Mission clock

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Velocity

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Distance

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Ship mass

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Acceleration

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Signal delay home

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Pellets burned

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What is study vs physics vs modelled here

Study: every mass, burn time, exhaust velocity, thrust figure, the 250 Hz pellet rate, the payload list, the Jupiter He-3 plan, and the two speed milestones (7.1% c at staging, 12.2% c at burnout), all from the 1978 JBIS final report. Physics: the rocket-equation curve between those milestones, the distance integral, the acceleration and mass readouts, the braking arithmetic, and NIF's 2022 ignition result. Modelled: the ship drawing's proportions, the exaggerated shield thickness, the plume and plasma art, and the slow-motion pulse pacing. Reading: what "feasible in principle" is worth after fifty years.

The voyage model

Each stage burns propellant at constant mass flow, so velocity follows Δv = vₑ ln(m₀/m(t)), scaled to land exactly on the study's staging and cruise milestones (the scale factors are within a few percent of 1, absorbing the report's mission-profile detail). Distance is the numeric integral of the curve; arrival at 5.9 light-years lands near year 50, matching the study's "about half a century". The braking ledger applies the same equation in reverse and says so; the published stop-and-stay design, Freitas's REPRO, is quoted alongside.

Where this drawing takes liberties

The ship is drawn from the report's dimensions but simplified: tank plumbing, radiators and the wardens' rails are schematic, the beryllium shield is metres thick on screen because 7 mm would be invisible, and the exhaust is art directed by the numbers rather than a plasma solve. The pulse view compresses or stretches a 4-millisecond cycle to watchable speeds, and the dial says which. The chart's curve, milestones and masses take no liberties.

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