Talk-Polywell.org

There's nothin there. Few pics. A 3d rendering. What's going on with the research? It's been years! Is Polywell going to work or not?!?! Is the jury in or out? Is the issue settled? If not, by what date will we get a press release, or a website update? Does the research group have a blog with daily ...

What is the primary source of information for Polywell research?

I mean, if there is any news, publication, etc. of an official nature, where will I find it?

Anything? It's been years since Dr. Bussard passed on.

Medusa was an interesting idea, but ultimately impractical.

Action-reaction. The bomb-pusher-plate is much less than 50% efficient. Period. Shape charge or not. Newton's 3rd Law of Motion. Look it up. This is high school stuff.

Half the momentum of the explosion goes toward the pusher plate, half away from it. That's Newton's 3rd Law (action-reaction). In reality, it will be much less because the blast is not perfectly collimated, much of the blast will impinge on the pusher plate at a non-zero angle to the direction of tr...

Ok. Don't know where I got the idea there weren't any fusion bombs in existence. Maybe because there aren't any multi-Megaton bombs in existence. But if I was wrong once, I could be wrong about that too. Anyways, I think that any nuclear powered spacecraft would have to be constructed in orbit. As s...

No, there aren't.

Sounds like you've done some homework. I haven't had the time. Anyway, I'm assuming that the shock absorbers are actually shock absorbers. If they were what you describe, they would be called springs, not shock absorbers. Also, without actually running the numbers, I'm wondering if your estimate of ...

I think the casing for the nuclear shape-charge was uranium. The end-caps were a plug of polyethylene, because it absorbs neutrons, has low molecular weight when ionized, and has far lower density than uranium. The blast would follow the direction of least resistance. At least that's the idea. I don...

Well, it's all vaporware until its hardware. The fact is, the 1965 designs were poorly done. They ignored the requirement for radiators, they tried to pass their designs off as safe for human spaceflight, even safe for use in the atmosphere. The drawings are artists impressions of artists impression...

Well, for one thing, the use of a massive pusher plate is just plain dumb. The impact of the blast would require shock absorbers, which in turn would require a cooling system and huge radiators. Not only would a large fraction of the energy of the blast be wasted by not impinging on the pusher plate...

I'm amazed and dismayed by the crude designs that keep popping up wrt nuclear pulse propulsion. It would be child's play for an engineer to do better. I can do better. Right off the top of my head I can see a better design. Probably would outperform Orion and Helios by a 1000-fold. This is what happ...

The thermonuclear bomb is the only man-made machine capable of producing excess energy from nuclear fusion. To describe the mechanism briefly: Stage 1 - chemical explosive - compresses the fissionable radioactive material to critical density so that it starts producing enough neutrons to sustain a c...

Well, believe it or not, I do have a very good and I want to say loving relationship with both of my parents. I also did with my grandparents until they died. If my children are in any way the way I am and provided I treat them well (which I am honestly planning to), I dont see any reason why they ...