Search found 6819 matches
- Wed Oct 08, 2008 6:28 pm
- Forum: Implications
- Topic: Since I have two minutes, here are my humble predictions
- Replies: 38
- Views: 30815
The world won't need that much B-11. Worldwide demand might be a couple railroad carloads per day, at most. Isn't that the point? The market for electricity is huge, but the market for fusion fuel will be vanishingly small. Yes, thats why I compared it to the DotCom boom. I think will be kinda of a...
- Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:09 pm
- Forum: Implications
- Topic: Since I have two minutes, here are my humble predictions
- Replies: 38
- Views: 30815
Since I have two minutes, here are my humble predictions
These are provided that the Bussard Fusion Reactor meets all expectations. It will take some 10 to 15 years until the first reactors go online. Meanwhile some more improvements will be made to the thing. General Electrics, Mitsubishi and Siemens file several patents for improving the efficiency of B...
- Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:28 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: and some more eestor news
- Replies: 65
- Views: 30877
One more comment on the earlier discussion in this thread. If everyone here is right and I am making an unfair statement about electric cars, then how come I have not seen a single electric SUV yet, not even a concept, or a design study? IMHO this is because the bigger the car gets the less the savi...
- Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:52 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: and some more eestor news
- Replies: 65
- Views: 30877
I posted this somewhere else already. From what I understand these are not ultracapasitors, but LiIon batteries that have this increased performance thanks to the the Nanosafe nanotechnology. Edit: Here is the link to the thread: http://www.talk-polywell.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=814 (the other item of...
- Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:08 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: ITER vs the Stone Axe
- Replies: 52
- Views: 29468
Dr. Nebel, I like what you are saying :) And competition is always good. It makes people work harder. I get a problem when politics give an unfair advantage to one competitor. This is something that happens quite often here in Austria. ITER clearly seems to have at least a little bit of that advanta...
- Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:02 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: HiPER 1 billion pound effort begins
- Replies: 24
- Views: 17177
Yeah, problem is that we already ignored the power supply for the lasers, now we are ignoring the lasers too? I do agree though that lasers have been getting better. I am wondering whether the fact that they are nowadays used so frequently (and with enough power to light a cigarette) in many consume...
- Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:47 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: HiPER 1 billion pound effort begins
- Replies: 24
- Views: 17177
- Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:46 am
- Forum: News
- Topic: HiPER 1 billion pound effort begins
- Replies: 24
- Views: 17177
I am not to sure about future versions of HiPER, but having seen the size of the lasers (plus power supplies), I doubt that it will be possible to use them for any space- based technology. One might be able to use ground based lasers for launching spacecraft, but that has a lot of additional challen...
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:50 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: HiPER 1 billion pound effort begins
- Replies: 24
- Views: 17177
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:07 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: NASA's Next 50 Years
- Replies: 36
- Views: 16399
Oh dear, I never heard of the "nuclear saltwater rocket", but I can totally understand why that could be "dirty". Fission based rockets are a good idea, when no small fusion reactors are available. However, we do have the chance to get one soon, so lets hope the best! After that point, I think space...
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:20 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Lets make sure it's called the 'Bussard Reactor'
- Replies: 62
- Views: 36770
Well Polywell makes the most sense from a technical POV. However calling it a "Bussard reactor" kinda has a romantic thing to it. First it would be in memory of a great man and second Bussard is also the german word for a kind of raptoric bird and that is kinda cool ;) I also think that the general ...
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:43 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: HiPER 1 billion pound effort begins
- Replies: 24
- Views: 17177
Yeah, so I was right ;) Now what is the difference between this and back then? Back then it did not work and now they are building another one for 2 billion USD and it is not even meant to generate net power, but to barely make break even and that if (and thats a big if) it works. In addition it, as...
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 2:39 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Nuclear Power plant applications.
- Replies: 21
- Views: 12800
Hmm, just use some old salt mines. Problem solved. We have some here in Austria and I visited them once. They are very deep in the mountains. I think one could savely store anything in those. In addition, it is not like we have THAT much waste to deal with, especially if we use nuclear waste refinem...
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 1:53 pm
- Forum: News
- Topic: HiPER 1 billion pound effort begins
- Replies: 24
- Views: 17177
Ok, I never quite followed up on it (I simply assumed that it ended up in a dead end, which seems kinda plausible), but I swear I have seen and read about something simillar in the 80ies. They were using gold covered pellets back then with several very strong lasers focused at them. I have no idea w...
- Sun Oct 05, 2008 1:16 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: NASA's Next 50 Years
- Replies: 36
- Views: 16399
To get back on topic though... I think that Carl Sagan was referring to the huge interstellar designs, not the one taking off from the ground. I remember him referring to this like this "it is certainly the best use for nuclear bombs I can imagine". I wholeheartedly agree with him on this. I cant th...