Gary and I attended the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) Inventors dinner at Prospect House on the Princeton University campus. Awards were given for 19 patents, patent applications and invention disclosures by PPPL engineers and scientists along with their co-inventors from other institutions.

Gary and I are on a patent application with Sam Cohen of PPPL and Yosef Razin of PSS titled, “Method to Produce High Specific Impulse and Moderate Thrust from a Fusion-powered Rocket Engine: (ARE-Aneutronic Rocket Engine). This is the core technology for our Direct Fusion Drive (DFD). PSS has licensed this and one other fusion patents from Princeton University for DFD work.

I gave a short speech talking about how DFD may take astronauts to Mars in the not too distant future for both orbital and landing missions. We handed out Mars candy bars and DFD bookmarks to the guests.

The dinner was excellent and it was fun talking with our colleagues at PPPL! We look forward to next years dinner!