The US government wants to send a small thermonuclear reactor Orbitron into space and has already signed a contract with private company Avalanche Energy, which is expected to implement the project by 2027. This was reported by Newsweek.

The working principle of the reactor consists of trapping high velocity ions around a negatively charged electrode. The compactness of the device is ensured by a small area for the formation of ion plasma, but this technology requires enormous power and this problem will have to be solved by the developers.

If successful, the energy from the reactor would significantly reduce market prices in the space industry. According to the authors of the project, they plan to start with a million dollars per kilowatt and then increase to 100 thousand dollars. It will be possible to use the energy for aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, powering spaceships and other needs.