Infrastructure for the Future: Fusion

There is a new space race developing, with higher stakes and more ambitious goals than just going back to Earth orbit or the Moon. The U.S. has developed a sizable technological lead in rockets and satellite technology, which has in turn grown our national and global space ambitions. Now that it is feasible to get to low Earth orbit affordably and reliably, astronauts and private companies are now looking to go further, and we’re not alone in this race.

The United States faces growing competition and increasing threats in the space domain from countries like Russia and China, each of which possess technologies capable of targeting U.S. space assets. The future of manned space exploration and development of space depends critically on the creation of a dramatically more proficient propulsion architecture for in-space transportation.

Nuclear fission and fusion power will be essential to accomplishing these and other ambitions. These technologies…