Talk-Polywell.org

I BELIEVE THAT THERMOPHOTOVOLTAICS ARE WHAT YOU WANT. THE IDEA IS TO COAT A HEAT SOURCE WITH A SELECTIVE SURFACE THAT ONLY RADIATES ENERGY AT ONE SPECIFIC WAVELENGTH. THEN YOU SURROUND THE HEAT SOURCE WITH PHOTOVOLTAICS WHOSE MAXIMUM CONVERSION EFFICIENCY IS AT THAT WAVELENGTH. THE LAST TIME I CHECK...

For people like us who hope to see a revolutionary technology change the world the writings of Harry Harrison are a must read. I have in mind particularly his novel The Daleth Effect. In the story, an Israeli physicist discovers an anomaly in the force of gravity that leads to a reactionless propuls...

The gamma rays would be provided by the fissioning U238. Portable gamma sources such as radioisotopes are dangerous unless shielded. A fusor could be turned on and off instantly. You wouldn"t have to worry about someone stealing it to make a dirty bomb either.

OK. So there is no hope of using this idea as a power source. But what about as a gamma ray source? Could it produce enough radiation to be useful in things like food sterilization, medical radiation treatments or finding microfractures in steel and concrete?

I know that the original Farnsworth Fusor was orders of magnitude away from producing as much energy as it consumed. It was however an excelent source of fast neutrons if fueled with deuterium or D plus tritium. Has anyone ever put a blanket of U238 around a fusor? The fast neutrons would fission th...

Gene Roddenberry wrote a book about "The Making of Star Trek" that gives a lot of info about what was going through his mind when he was laying down the basics of the show. Antimatter was chosen as the power source for the Enterprise because he wanted something far more advanced than any Twentieth C...

There are clues in the original Star Trek series that indicate how the power systems work. In the Mudd's Women episode, the Enterprise is forced to use all possible power to extend their shields over another ship at a distance. This burns out some of their dilithium crystals. Therefore the antimatte...