In 1960, Bussard conceived of the Bussard ramjet, an interstellar space drive powered by hydrogen fusion using hydrogen collected using a magnetic field from the interstellar gas.
Some of his earliest work was in the area of nuclear fission rockets.
In 1956, Bussard designed the nuclear thermal rocket known as project Rover.
Dr. Bussard initiated some of the first major work on nuclear fusion in the United States.
In the early 1970s Dr. Bussard became Assistant Director under Director Robert Hirsch at the Controlled Thermonuclear Reaction Division of what was then known as the Atomic Energy Commission. They founded the mainline fusion program for the United States: the Tokamak. Later, in June 1995, Bussard claimed in a letter to all fusion laboratories as well as to key members of US Congress, that he, along with the other founders of the program, supported the Tokamak not out of conviction that it was the best technical approach but rather as a vehicle for generating political support, thereby allowing them to pursue "all the hopeful new things the mainline labs would not try".
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2007/10/dr-robert-w-bussard-has-passed.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Bussardhttp://www.ecofriend.org/entry/robert-bussard-dreams-of-nuclear-fusion-to-end-energy-crisis/http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=1506The memorial will be the 13th in Santa Fe.
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