<div>For decades nuclear fusion space propulsion has been studied but due to technological set backs for self-sustaining fusion, it has been repeatedly abandoned in favor of more near-term or present day solutions. While these present day solutions of chemical and electric propulsion have been able to accomplish their missions, as the human race looks to explore Mars, a near term solution utilizing nuclear fusion propulsion must be sought as the fusion powered thruster case currently does not meet the minimum 0.2 thrust-to-weight ratio requirement. The current work seeks to investigate the use of a ssion powered magnetic fusion thruster for a manned Mars mission with an emphasis on creating a very near-term propulsion system. This will be accomplished by utilizing present day readily available technology and adapting methods of nuclear electric and nuclear fusion propulsion to build this ssion assisted propulsion system. Near term solutions have been demonstrated utilizing both DT and D-He3 fuels for a ssion powered and ssion assisted Dense Plasma Focus fusion device capable of achieving thrust-to-weight ratios greater than 0.2 for V's of 20 km/s. The Dense Plasma Focus can achieve thrust-to-weight ratios of 0.34 and 0.4 for ssion assisted and ssion powered cases, respectively, however, the Gasdynamic Mirror device proved to be an infeasible design as a ssion powered thruster due to the increased weight of a ssion reactor.</div>

Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser(COIL) is an electronic transition high energy chemical laser having a wavelength of 1.315 /mi. This is the first chemical laser to operate on an electronic rather than a rotational or vibrational transition. In principle the COIL can be operated either in pulsed or cw mode. Its interest lies in high chemical efficiency, high power and wavelength which is shortest among all the chemical lasers. COIL finds a wide range of applications as its output wavelength at 1.315/zm couples well with the surface of most metals. The applications include surface hardening and modification of metals, welding, drilling and cutting of metals, cutting of ceramics, micro machining, laser deposition of non metallic coatings on metallic surfaces, monitoring of atmospheric pollutants and solar hazardous waste detoxification. Moreover, its wavelength is suitable for fiber optic transmission. In COIL the laser output at 1.315 /an is achieved by stimulated emission on the f (2-PL/2) -* -f (2-p3/2) magnetic dipole transition in atomic iodine. The population inversion on this transition is obtained by resonant collisions! energy transfer from metastable excited Oj^A) molecules produced by a chemical reaction of KOH, H2O? and Cl2. The chemical reaction of H2O2 and Cl2 that produces oxygen molecules is highly exothermic, and because of spin conservation considerations, channels its energy directly into the metastable electronically excited singlet delta state of oxygen molecule. Since the O2(1A) has a 45 mins lifetime and hence an extremely low small signal gain coefficient, it cannot be lased directly. Lasing can be achieved, however, if this energy is transferred to an atom or molecule which has a reasonable transition moment between its excited and ground states. The iodine 52P^2 -> 52P3/2 magnetic dipole transition has an acceptable transition moment and is nearly resonant with the 02{lA) state in oxygen. Excited iodine atoms are obtained by mixing O2(l A) and l2 molecules resulting in their dissociation and subsequent excitation. Power levels in excess of 25 kW have been reported in COIL. Due to wide range of applications and mainly for its use as a laser weapon, efforts are being made to enhance the power to higher levels. The dissociation of I2 controls the gain of the coil and hence power. In the pure COIL scheme some of the I2 remains undissociated due to the recombination reactions. Hence if we add a mechanism to dissociate the residual I2 molecules, we can enhance the performance of the COIL. So we propose to add a solar pumping to conventional COIL, which by photo exciting the undissociated I2lead to increase in efficiency. The thesis contains six chapters in which chapter 1 contains a general introduction and the definition of the research problem. The basic theory and the chemical reactions are discussed in chapter 2, The proposed model is discussed and the rate equations are solved in chapter 3. The numerical scheme and the computer code along-with the validation of the code are presented in chapter 4. The numerical results for the species concentrations, population inversion density and the output power for the proposed solar pumped COIL are presented in chapter 5, Final conclusions and future scope of the proposed research are presented in the final chapter 6. (Pl refer the original document for formulas)