physics

OpenStar

OpenStar is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand OpenStar rather than just read about it. In short: OpenStar Technologies is a company based in Wellington, New Zealand, that is developing a nuclear fusion power reactor. It aims to build a series of devices that lead to a model able to supply electricity to the grid by the 2030s.

Key takeaways

OpenStar belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect OpenStar to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of OpenStar from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

OpenStar Technologies is a company based in Wellington, New Zealand, that is developing a nuclear fusion power reactor. It aims to build a series of devices that lead to a model able to supply electricity to the grid by the 2030s. While research has been conducted on fusion power for decades, no one has ever made a reactor capable of supplying electricity on a commercial scale. Worldwide, there are about 45 companies developing nuclear fusion reactors.

History The founder and CEO of OpenStar is Ratu Mataira, who has completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the Robinson Research Institute, of Victoria University of Wellington. The institute focuses on superconductors. After Mataira first learned of the levitated dipole concept for fusion reactors in 2020, which the US government defunded in 2011, Mataira founded the company in 2021. According to 1News, OpenStar is the first New Zealand company to attempt to develop a nuclear fusion reactor. By 2024, the company has raised a total of NZ$20 million. In 2024 Mataira estimated that the company would need between $500 million and $1 billion to successfully develop a fusion reactor. He has suggested that the pharmaceutical industry might be interested in OpenStar as the company could produce isotopes required by the pharmaceutical industry that are traditionally made using nuclear fission. In November 2024, the company achieved the creation of plasma, which lasted for 20 seconds at 300,000 °C (540,000 °F). Temperatures in the hundreds of millions of degrees are required for fusion to occur. In February 2026 the New Zealand Government lent OpenStar $35 million through the Regional Development Fund. The company says that it will use this money to build a new research facility. As of June 2025, OpenStar has 55 employees.

Technology OpenStar is developing a levitated dipole reactor, which uses a levitating superconducting toroidal battery-powered magnet that is placed and operates inside a vacuum chamber of cylindrical form modified with domed ends (a capsule or spherocylinder). Their first machine is named Marsden, after the English-New Zealand physicist Ernest Marsden, and its first magnet inside is named Junior. The vacuum chamber (Marsden) diameter is about 5 metres (16 ft); the magnet (Junior) diameter is about 1 metre (3.3 ft). In most magnetic confinement fusion reactor designs, such as a tokamak, the magnets are placed outside of the vacuum chamber. According to Mataira, "The core engineering challenge is how do you make a magnet that's surrounded by plasma operate for long enough to be useful". The firm's reactors will use the hydrogen isotopes deuterium, which has one neutron, and tritium, which has two neutrons.

See also List of nuclear fusion companies

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with OpenStar

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what OpenStar claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to OpenStar before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about OpenStar ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of OpenStar

In research: OpenStar appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses OpenStar in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: OpenStar is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2021 establishments in New Zealand, Companies based in Wellington, Energy companies of New Zealand, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for OpenStar outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study OpenStar in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what OpenStar means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain OpenStar out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is OpenStar in simple terms?

Why does OpenStar matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study OpenStar?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on OpenStar.