dietz%USC-CSE@USC-ECL.ARPA (03/23/84)
A pointer to the conference proceedings containing an unclassified paper on the fusion rocket is in Tom Heppenheimer's new book "The Manmade Sun". The book is about fusion; I'm sure your fusion friends at Courant have read or soon will read this book. See OMNI magazine, October 1983, page 78 for an artists conception of Robert Hyde's fusion rocket. The Omni article says he presented a paper on fusion rockets at the International Astronautical Federation's annual convention in Budapest last year, so the paper will probably be appearing in Acta Astronautica soon. Hyde and friends at Livermore are the ones who ran the LASNEX implosion simulation program on BIS's Daedalus design, and discovered the pellets either wouldn't ignite or would melt the engine. Presumably Hyde's rocket has been more thoroughly simulated.