No they aren't. It seems their design only really reduces the amount of unpaired electric charges expelled, which otherwise would get pushed back to the cathode because of the plume's total charge density. They don't even use the energy released by fusion itself, because for that you would need to fuse the particles before they reach the exhaust nozzle (which is super hard and also the reason why noone managed to build a real fusion rocket so far). That's why they call it a "fusion-enhanced" instead of "fusion-powered" engine. They talk about it in more detail in another article:
No they aren't. It seems their design only really reduces the amount of unpaired electric charges expelled, which otherwise would get pushed back to the cathode because of the plume's total charge density. They don't even use the energy released by fusion itself, because for that you would need to fuse the particles before they reach the exhaust nozzle (which is super hard and also the reason why noone managed to build a real fusion rocket so far). That's why they call it a "fusion-enhanced" instead of "fusion-powered" engine. They talk about it in more detail in another article:
https://thedebrief.org/rocketstar-successfully-demonstrates-...