Talk-Polywell.org

Results matter first. Then publicity. Right now LPP's results are "pB11 fusion looks promising". It's something, but they'll have to wait until about March to start breaking new ground. We don't know what results EMC2 has and when they're going to release them, but they have a little bit of breathi...

Its encouraging that a variety of approaches are being pursued. LLP, EMC2, Tri-Alpha, and General Fusion. Maybe none of them will work. Maybe all of them will work and the marketplace will consist of competitive technologies. I still think that Tri-Alpha has the best chance of working, if aneutroni...

http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/lpp_december_2010_report_-_summary/ Lots of additional links, like http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/demonstrating_over_100_kev_confinement_in_a_dense_plasma/ and http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/reliable_firing_of_bank_with_10_c...

Here's a LPPX summary for the latest reports: http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/lpp_december_2010_report_-_summary/ D/L the full PDF if you want all of it; there are excerpts posted on the site (check the sequential links at the bottom, e.g. to http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/artic...

There's a detailed construction and component assembly slideshow, with annotations, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/focusfusion/sets/72157625540958477/show/ Hold the mouse pointer on the info box to hold the image till you're ready for the next one. Click the "Show Info" button to toggle descript...

TDPerk wrote:The fuels in the SSTS tanks are hydrogen and oxygen. Vent them for a little bit and they are gone.

Yes, the solid boosters that fall away may be toxic, but the Main Tank (liquid H and O) is not.

And XCOR is sweet, but "sub-orbital" isn't really "almost orbital". That last step is a biggie. As is the re-entry at 5X the velocity. Speaking of re-entry, SpaceX is working towards 1st-stage recovery. Musk thinks they're on track in the next 2-3 years, and made a REAL strong point of emphasizing t...

Yeah, Elon was apologizing in the post-flight for incoherence due to a blown mind, from success "almost too good" to be true. He then went on to tout the Dragon as able to do everything Orion could have, plus make ballistic atmospheric entry to Mars, which would crisp Orion (more advanced heat shiel...

Seems to me Virgin is way behind the "passengers to ISS" curve compared to SpaceX, whose Dragon capsule seats 7 and is designed for re-entry and re-use.

But it's all moot until Virgin can demonstrate any orbit-re-entry capability at all.

Breakthroughs in extremely powerful short burst lasers and development of some magnetic (or electrostatic) system that positions and holds the target might relax the challenges some. Such as this .... I thought I saw some reference to air guns ... Zapping the pellets on the fly. On the time scales ...

New "Webinar" video. part 1 of 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd-tWGWtYwU

Some technical info, mostly background in Part 1.

Edit: parts 2-4 are now up, with lotsa tech info and some Q&A.
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XK4cZMw ... re=related
3 & 4 linked on screen.

One of the Focusfusion.org bloggers with a bit of an inside track has now put the target for breakeven into 2011, though there's still a huge amount of "fuzz" around how fast things will progress once pB11 fusion is under way. I suppose 2010 is still possible. Have you looked at the Intrade Focus Fu...

A better use for a FF reactor for flight would be an air breather. Suppose you were to fit an MV22 with a pair of 10MW reactor/turbofans. If you captured just half the energy and used it (which is being generous with all that air to heat) you'd have about the same power as the huge fans on the Ospr...

25 MW x 500 thrusters = 25 GW hmm - new math...Unless you're powering the space shuttle, then that's about right. ... Not new, just error -- missed that you were working with 10MW since I'm used to thinking of the FF as a 5MW machine. So the count would be 1000, which is 10x10x10. Which makes me wo...

Lets suppose you built something like a Millenium Falcon. It's about 27 meters long, and has a thruster assembly about 20 meters wide and 2.5 meters high. If you have about 50 FF thrusters/square meter, at 10 MW@, that's about 25 GW, yes? Will that fly? ... At that, you should have a pretty reliabl...