images

Bussard Ramjet - Artist view

by

Joe Bergeron/Novapix

Reference

e-ill02-00200

Date

2010-03-06

This digital image shows a venerable design for an interstellar vehicle. Magnetic fields would collect stray hydrogen atoms and draw them into the funnel in the front. There they would be compressed and used to fuel a fusion reaction to propel the starship at relativistic speeds. The ship would have to be accelerated to a high speed by some other means before the ramjet could even begin to work.