September 4, 2025
Underwood has received a NASA Early Career Faculty (ECF) award for his project, “Z-Pinch Fusion Driven Electromagnetic Propulsion.” The effort aims to demonstrate a fusion-based propulsion concept that uses a z-pinch, a method to compress plasma using an intense electrical current, to achieve the specific impulse and specific power required for deep space missions.
Learn more from Underwood about the innovative propulsion system his team is advancing.
What makes this propulsion system unique and how can it support deep space missions?
Current systems used for propelling vehicles into space are not suitable for deep space exploration, especially missions intended for carrying human crews and those that involve voyages outside of our own solar system. These mechanisms either do not have a high enough specific power to reach deep-space destinations in a short period of time, or they lack the fuel efficiency needed during high thrust to carry a payload.
The new propulsion system we are developing is an energetic concept that could make rapid and efficient space transportation possible for the next generation of space missions. The concept combines electromagnetic acceleration — a process that uses electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass —and compression to generate fusion conditions in a compact device. The prototype will be operationally simple, easy to test in a lab setting, and allows for scalability.
What impact will this work have on society?
This technology has cross-cutting potential to revolutionize propulsion systems for emerging space missions, including deep-space exploration or space stations orbiting within the solar system for long periods of time. Aspects of the technology could also help us rethink how fuel is stored on a spacecraft or satellite, offering the possibility of harvesting propellant from resources that are available around the vehicle during its mission.
For example, our work here at UT Austin has explored how electromagnetic acceleration can generate thrust by pulling in molecular propellants such as water from ice or molecules from the atmosphere at low altitudes. This is one method that could provide a source of self-replenishing mass for space propulsion systems that does not need to be stored onboard the spacecraft before a mission starts.
NASA awarded Underwood $750,000 over three years to support this work.
