Stage 2-Primary Daedalus Fusion Drive And
Gravity Ring Drive Emitter Array Technical Specifications

Under deep space flight conditions, the fusion drive is shut down and the gravity drive is brought online.   Using the ATSOL gravity pulse drive, the "Icarus" creates and projects a field of 'negative gravity' forward of its current position in space and a field of positive gravity behind it.  As the ship 'falls' forward, it begins to accelerate faster and faster, 'falling' into its own artificially generated gravity well.  Acceleration is constant and appreciable, with high percentages of the speed of light (POTSOL) being gained within a short time of constant operation.  Constant acceleration for several days will allow the "Icarus" to approach very high percentages of TSOL, thus paving the way for interstellar flights to other stars, flights that will now take years instead of decades.

A compact Mark III Lycoming Teledyne Rand stellarator-type nuclear fusion reactor is located in the main hull area, with primary power leads and auxiliary dispersion trunks extending up to Stage One.  Onboard fuel capacity for the nuclear reactor is 2000 gallons of processed deuterium, enough for five years of constant use at peak output, even longer with planned energy conservation programs in place.  An access way is placed within the Second Stage, but its use by the crew is intended only as an emergency access.  Everything within the Second Stage is designed to be run by computer and automatic relay from the First Stage and the command module itself.  Under initial trials, the Daedalus seems to provide a performance of +/- 12 standard gravities of acceleration.

Because the gravity drive exerts a much more appreciable drag on the areas of space through which it is projected, by reversing the fields, the "Icarus" can decelerate much more quickly than it accelerated, thus where spacecraft used to accelerate halfway to a destination, turn around, and decelerate the second half, the "Icarus" using the gravity drive system, can maintain near 100% time in acceleration and thrust to destination.  Since the polarity of the fields can simply be reversed, positive to forward and negative to rear, the "Icarus" does not need to 'turn around'.  Deceleration is likewise rapid.

When Stage Three burns out, a ring of forty explosive bolts detonates to separate the spent booster from Stage Two, which continues to coast forward for ten full seconds.  After the ten second delay, Stage Two ignites the Daedalus drive at an altitude of 120 miles, resulting in a brilliant five mile long plasma 'tail' that is easily seen from the ground with the naked eye during broad daylight.  The Daedalus drive is fired in 'pulses' but these pulses are controlled through the magnetic sphincter so precisely that the exhaust flare seems to be one long plume.  Stage Two quickly accelerates the last stages and the crew aboard the command module into a stationary high orbit where all final systems are checked with Mission Control.  Upon being given the go ahead, the crew will fire the Daedalus drive again, rapidly building up velocity as they head out of the solar system for their destination, maneuvering to position the ship so that it has the least amount of gravitational interference.

Trip length can range from hours to weeks to years.  The crew onboard will spend very little of this mission time awake, instead, they will remain in suspended animation, at a much reduced energy conservation protocol while the computers handle the flight characteristics of the mission.  The flight commander will be awakened only in the event that a mission critical decision has to be made, or if there is an emergency which the onboard computers are not programmed to handle.  The flight commander's decision to awaken one or more of the other members of the crew is at his discretion then.

The crew is normally awakened several hours before arrival at the mission destination.  This allows for the effects of long term hibernation to pass.  Once the mission is complete, the vessel will start its return to Earth.  Several hours into the return flight, the crew will again enter suspended animation for the trip home.  The onboard systems will awaken the crew again several hours prior to touchdown and subsequent recovery.