Talk-Polywell.org

JoeStrout

"As for option #2, public funding doesn't necessarily have to come from the US federal government. It could come from a state government, or from some other country, or even from a charitable organization."

The White House would never let another country fund something like this. For example if China comes in and tries to fund it then this will go straight up to the President who will make sure it is funded with American money. Energy is one of the most important issues in US Politics. Remember, USA consumes 25% of the worlds petroleum.

Btw SpaceDev hired 3 of his best workers and store his fusion lab. And if SpaceDev is paying his three best workers then I demand SpaceDev gets something in return. And i want to know what is going on here. I think I will contact SpaceDev or attend one of their shareholders meeting and ask what SpaceDev is getting in return for hiring Bussards best fusion workers. If they are getting salary's then they better work on the fusion right now.

//Rexxam62

1. Someone rich fund it all in a one time lump sum (Some rich guy would probably love to fund it but given the advanced physics involved here its hard for them to asses if this is bogus or not)

Would Dr.Bussard agree to that? Ringgatron was ruined when a rich guy failed to produce the research money required to build the thing at all.

Regardless, the rich person in question would have to donate the money, not just give it.

2. It gets public funding (Not going to happen with all the cash being sent to Iraq to secure its oil fields, Because USA is not in Iraq to find Osama Bin Laden)

Perhaps not from the federal budget. But from a state budget?

3. My suggestion

Which was what again?

Btw SpaceDev hired 3 of his best workers and store his fusion lab. And if SpaceDev is paying his three best workers then I demand SpaceDev gets something in return.

QED engines that are far superior to anything NASA or any other space agency could wave a bat at? Fusion reactors that would power space stations and future spacecrafts? A share from every fusion power plant ever built in the future?

And i want to know what is going on here. I think I will contact SpaceDev or attend one of their shareholders meeting and ask what SpaceDev is getting in return for hiring Bussards best fusion workers. If they are getting salary's then they better work on the fusion right now.

I think that SpaceDev is only storing EMC2's stuff, and the jobs the 3 researchers are doing are non-fusion related. SpaceDev has only so much money anyway.

Zixinus wrote:Even with collage students, we still need a core of professional and experienced engineers. There is no way around that. Volunteers might help with the heavy lifting, and perhaps even with the cleaning, and collage students might help maintenance the computers or get some parts, but when we need to calculate plasma instabilities, we need a professional. And we have to pay them, as they have to eat and run a family too.

EDIT: Also, a good line in their resume is a source of motivation, not pay. They still have to be paid.

This is why I think SpaceDev mgmt has been mum on the topic. They are a publicly traded company and all decisions they make have heavy scrutiny by the shareholders. If there is not a real business plan for a project with a palatable ROI, you can bet it will be back burner-ed (sucks for new things and new ideas, I know, but that's reality).

Gathering up Bussard's equipment (and staff) and housing them at SpaceDev was Jim Benson's (former CEO of SpaceDev) idea. Now that he is gone, what the new mgmt's plans are is in this area is anybody's guess (for now).

Why is Jim Benson no longer CEO ?

JeffDev

Very good point!

Nanos

Jim Benson left SpaceDev because he started "Benson Space Company" that works on trying to raise funds to build a suborbital spacecraft. BSC will <probably< buy their engines from SpaceDev though.

Nanos wrote:Why is Jim Benson no longer CEO ?

He and his ex-wife still own 50%+ of the company shares, so he is still Chairman of the Board and pretty much still in the picture-- Just not the day to day operations of the outfit.

It was a mutual thing I think. He mentioned in an interview that he wants to focus more on space tourism-- while the business model of SpaceDev itself is much more than getting tourists to space.

From a financial perspective, Benson needs to raise $200+ Million to build suborbital space ships, but issuing more stock would dilute the shares of existing stock holders. By leaving SpaceDev and forming a new company (Benson Space Company), he can tap angel investors and then order the ships from SpaceDev and thus become more of a space "airline."

If you want to know more, visit www.spacedev.com ans peruse the press releases, or my blog link listed below.

-JeffDEv

JeffDev wrote:From a financial perspective, Benson needs to raise $200+ Million to build suborbital space ships, but issuing more stock would dilute the shares of existing stock holders.

You know how far he is in the process of getting the funds needed to build dream chaser?

//Rexxam62

rexxam62 wrote:

JeffDev wrote:From a financial perspective, Benson needs to raise $200+ Million to build suborbital space ships, but issuing more stock would dilute the shares of existing stock holders.

You know how far he is in the process of getting the funds needed to build dream chaser?

//Rexxam62

(this is starting to get off topic, my apologies)

All rumor at this point. No official comments. But... more at:

http://www.spdv.info/index.php/space-to ... naires/99/

and

http://www.spdv.info/index.php/space-to ... dbits/100/

BTW, Jim's new ship is not Dream Chaser anymore. SpaceDev's orbital ship is still Dream Chaser, but the sub-orbital version Benson wants is so far just called "Benson Spaceship" -- I like to call it the "T-38" design... see BensonSpace.com if you want to see why.

JeffDev wrote:

rexxam62 wrote:

JeffDev wrote:From a financial perspective, Benson needs to raise $200+ Million to build suborbital space ships, but issuing more stock would dilute the shares of existing stock holders.

You know how far he is in the process of getting the funds needed to build dream chaser?

//Rexxam62

(this is starting to get off topic, my apologies)

All rumor at this point. No official comments. But... more at:

http://www.spdv.info/index.php/space-to ... naires/99/

and

http://www.spdv.info/index.php/space-to ... dbits/100/

BTW, Jim's new ship is not Dream Chaser anymore. SpaceDev's orbital ship is still Dream Chaser, but the sub-orbital version Benson wants is so far just called "Benson Spaceship" -- I like to call it the "T-38" design... see BensonSpace.com if you want to see why.

Be honest, do you think the "flaps" that will spread out during reentry is a good design? I am not an engineer so its always hard for me to asses if design a is better then b.

//Rexxam62

Zixinus wrote: His name is Indrek. I think he's a member here.

He also posts at:

IEC Fusion Newsgroup

Zixinus wrote:As for workers working only for food and room, get that idea out right NOW.

We are talking about engineers and physicist with PhDs and the like, not to mention potential illegality of this idea.

Not everyone involved of course will be a highly-qualified person, but these people will have a high enough qualification that scraps of food and a closet with a bed is not an option. Besides, there surely could be volunteers for the manual labour and the like.

And collage students. Don't forget collage students. They have some expertise and knowledge, plus they have higher tolerance regarding pay, plus motivation (getting jobs will be easier for anyone that has it in his resume that he worked in EMC2, the company that developed practical fusion power).

I'm retired. I have more than enough experience to manage the design and construction of WB-7x. Not to mention electronics power conversion and reactor controls. Aerospace quality.

I won't work for free, but I can be had pretty cheap. At least during the WB-7x phase.

The idea of using grad students at a university has its appeal.

I do expect to profit in the long run from knowledge acquired.

If I get to do this job I expect to have a cot on site. Saves commute time. On site trailers might be an answer.

How cheap ?

And would you be prepaired to move to say the UK ?

I'm wondering how many people would be willing and at what price/wage level to move to a community if one such existed to work on fusion research together in a group effort.

The least expensive thing would be a good simulation. Indrek has a real good start on this. For redundancy's sake, here is his website: http://www.mare.ee/indrek/ephi/ He even includes source code!!!

Nanos wrote:How cheap ?

And would you be prepaired to move to say the UK ?

I'm wondering how many people would be willing and at what price/wage level to move to a community if one such existed to work on fusion research together in a group effort.

My bags are packed. I've always wanted to learn British, heck even Canadian as a second language would be good. LOL. Seriously. Anywhere (a move to Baghdad might be premature). I'll need travel expenses.

USA would be best for me since I understand the supply chain here. However, I'm not fussy. The internet is a great work around. Just one thing. No Witworth.

Simon

pstudier wrote:The least expensive thing would be a good simulation. Indrek has a real good start on this. For redundancy's sake, here is his website: http://www.mare.ee/indrek/ephi/ He even includes source code!!!

Actually what Indrek has done is a discrete simulation. Very good. He has already used it to solve some important engineering problems. However, that is not the same as a full up plasma simulation by any means.

Dr. B. estimates a full up plasma simulator (hardware and software) at $8 million. I think he is way low. In addition because of the slight non-neutrality of the plasma the calculations may require 128 bit arithmetic or better in order to avoid losing the results in calculation noise. Custom hardware. FPGAs most likely.