Can a device formerly used to test nuclear weapons effects
find a new life in rocket propulsion research? That is the question in which
researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville seek an answer.
A new massive device is being assembled at the university’s
Aerophysics Research Center on Redstone Arsenal, where a team of scientists and
researchers from UAHuntsville’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, Boeing and Marshall Space Flight Center’s Propulsion Engineering
Lab are busy putting together a strange looking machine they’re calling the
“Charger-1 Pulsed Power Generator.” It’s a key element in furthering the
development of nuclear fusion technology to drive spacecraft.