The new fusion engine can allow manned- and unmanned craft to travel across the solar system.

  The new fusion engine can allow manned- and unmanned craft to travel across the solar system. 

Artists rendering of Helicity Space's fusion space propulsion technology. (Image: Helicity Space)

A start-up company called Helicity Space is researching a new type of fusion engine. The fusion system is not necessarily self-sustaining. And in that case, lasers or some other electromagnetic radiation that keeps fusion going can get their energy from a fission reactor. The fusion engines can give far higher thrust. Then in regular electrostatic- or chemical nuclear engines. Electrostatic engines are ion engines, where ions give thrust. 

The problem with those systems is weak thrust. Those engines' specific impulse is very high butt weak thrust makes their acceleration very slow. The last one is a nuclear reactor that expands hydrogen and gives thrust. The NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) is a typical nuclear-chemical engine where a reactor expands hydrogen. The trust in that system is very powerful. But the problem is in nuclear waste. The small nuclear reactors that use weapon-enriched plutonium can be useful in those crafts. 

In regular rockets, and fusion rockets, the forward traveling particles give the punch. The rocket's speed cannot be higher than those particle's speed. 

It is possible. Electrostatic engines can also give punch if the system aims ion beam to the solar-sail-looking structure. The pushing ion beam can give a powerful thrust. In fusion engine systems radiation, and particles can also have similar effects to regular rocket engines. But the speed of those particles and radiation is far higher. 

The electrostatic system's principle is that it accelerates particles backward. The thing that creates thrust is the energy vacuum or low-energy channel behind that particle. in electrostatic engines, particle pulls energy out from the craft and forms a lower energy area in its back. Then energy travels to that lower energy point. The ion engine acts like a thermal pump. That makes energy travel to the craft. 

Energy is like extremely thin strings. Those energy fields that are ahead of the craft are the reason why the craft cannot cross the speed of light using regular engines. The electrostatic engine pulls those fields to the craft. The energy will travel to the craft, but when the craft's speed is close to the speed of light. Those quantum fields jump away from the craft. And then the energy starts to flow out from the craft. 

The photon acceleration makes electrostatic engines more powerful. 

In some visions, some kind of laser system that pushes particles backward can accelerate electrons or protons at a speed so high that they cut the quantum strings ahead of the craft. The idea is that the laser ray kicks electrons forward because laser-ray can fill an electromagnetic vacuum behind those electrons. And that accelerates those electrons at a higher speed than usual. Then the laser ray will shut down, and that makes the quantum vacuum behind the particle deeper. 

And maybe that thing can cut the superstring ahead of the craft. When superstrings are cut and aimed at the craft. That thing makes it possible. Those superstrings can deliver energy longer to the craft. Or that vacuum pulls craft more powerful to the forward. 

But electrostatic systems can also turn particles into antimatter in antimatter rocket systems. 

In electrostatic systems, the particle accelerators push ions or electrons backward. The annihilator- or antimatter-based systems look a little bit similar to the regular ion engine. There is a particle accelerator that turns some particles into antimatter. The most promising thing in that type of engine is cathode- or electron beams. 

Electrons or cathode rays may launch through a thin gold plate. That turns some electrons into positrons. This kind of system makes extremely powerful thrust for the spacecraft. The electron-positron annihilation is one of the most promising power sources for long-term space flights. 

https://www.helicityspace.com/technology

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/helicity-space-deep-space-nuclear-fusion-engine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA