This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE 1 An Overview of the Charger-1 Pulsed Power Facility Brian Taylor , Jason Cassibry, Robert Adams, Glen Doughty, Bill Seidler, Ross Cortez, Patrick Giddens, Leo Fabisinski, David Bradley, Erin Gish, and Mitchell Rodriguez Abstract—The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis- tration at Marshall Space Flight Center is working to develop a pulsed power facility. The facility, known as Charger-1, is a 1-TW pulsed power machine. The hardware was originally DECADE Module 1 from L-3 Pulsed Sciences Division in San Leandro, CA. The DECADE program enabled the construction of several pulsed-power modules. Together, they were used for high-energy X-ray generation and weapons effects testing. The module at UAH is being outfitted for z-pinch propulsion system and nuclear energy production experiments. Its primary envisioned goal is to support the development of a Pulsed Fission-Fusion propulsion system with experimental data. This document is intended to update the nuclear and pulsed power communities as to the progress of the facility development. An overview of the facility and its status is presented. Index Terms—Fission, fusion, pulsed power, z-pinch. I. I NTRODUCTION T HE exploration of deep space has been a long standing desire of the scientific community and has received much interest from the general public since space flight has become a reality. The low energy content and efficiency of current chemical engines greatly limits space exploration capabilities. The energy density of nuclear fuel is far greater than that of chemical fuels (e.g., liquid hydrogen and oxygen). In fact, depending upon the scheme of the nuclear propulsion system, several orders of magnitude increase in efficiency can be achieved. It is, therefore, of great interest to the space flight community to develop nuclear propulsion systems to not only enable ambitious exploration of our solar system, both manned and robotic, but also decrease costs and logistical complexity with smaller, more capable vehicles. Manuscript received November 17, 2017; revised April 17, 2018, July 3, 2018, and July 26, 2018; accepted July 31, 2018. The review of this paper was arranged by Senior Editor F. Beg. (Corresponding author: Brian Taylor.) B. Taylor, R. Adams, and G. Doughty are with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 USA (e-mail: brian.d.taylor@nasa.gov). J. Cassibry, B. Seidler, R. Cortez, and P. Giddens are with the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899 USA. L. Fabisinski is with ISSI, Huntsville, AL 35806 USA. D. Bradley is with Yetispace, Huntsville, AL 35802 USA. E. Gish is with Boeing, Huntsville, AL 35808 USA. M. Rodriguez is with Jacobs, Huntsville, AL 35806 USA. Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2018.2862860 Fig. 1. Charger-1 at the Aerophysics Laboratory on Redstone Arsenal. The authors are pursuing research to develop a pulsed fission-fusion (PuFF) propulsion system that employs a z-pinch of nuclear fuel to produce the energy required for thrust. There are many engineering challenges associated with such a system. A key aspect to addressing these chal- lenges is obtaining relevant experimental data. For this reason, the authors are developed a pulsed power facility for z-pinch experiments. The pulsed power facility in development is known as Charger-1. It was originally DECADE Module 1 obtained from L-3 Pulsed Sciences Division in San Leandro, CA. It is now located at the Aerophysics Laboratory at the Univer- sity of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The facility is being developed in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Charger-1 is a test facility for high power and ther- monuclear fusion–fission propulsion concepts, astrophysics modeling, and radiation physics. The machine stores 572 kJ and provides 1 TW in a 100-ns pulse. Once operational, the machine provides experimental data required to advance 0093-3813 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.