OT: fusion is getting SOOOO close -> then comes fusion engines!!! ::P muhuhahah(no j

[Cirvol]

which is why fiction is so important...

without altruistic star-treks' and other cool sci-fi type fiction, people would not even see how good a thing sharing is

hopefully, with enough penetration of these ideas into the young minds of the next generation of 'powers to be', we'll have a shot at it without the massive poor % of the world rising up in a huge revolution

its a good thing that 'modern' countries today can still remember what happens when too few people control too much wealth

(*hums* les miz tune)

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

10 years to Alpha Centauri? I get the window seat! On second thought that also means 10 years back. Or i could stay there. I doubt it has any habitable planets. Isn't Alpha Centauri a binary system? I don't swing that way!
Yeah fusions gonna happen eventually. Gonna make that spinning butterd toast/cat array thing look like a dog and pony show.
I also don't thing fusion bombs are going to be any more powerful than what already happens with a Hydrogen Bomb. Didn't they use to call those fission/fusion/fission devices?

[Me Loonn]

Well, the alpha centauri is a tertiary system.

Alpha Centauri A is the main star (type G2) of this tertiary system, similar to our sun (also type G2) thought abit larger.
The other two are an orange dwarf Alpha Centauri B (type K1) and a small red dwarf, Alpha Centauri C (type M5) aka 'Proxima Centauri'.

More info from here homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/schatzer/Alpha-Centauri.html

[ November 26, 2003, 18:04: Message edited by: Me Loonn ]

[Phoenix-D]

A hydrogen bomb IS a fusion bomb. And we do have fusion reactions right now, they just take far more energy to sustain then they produce in power.

[Taera]

for all i know, we had those for some time now, how correct are my knowledges?

[Cyrien]

I did a nice paper for my Environmental Studies class on Fusion Power and other alternative healthy energies.

The biggest draw back with fusion is thus. Is is not free. It is very cheap to maintain and run and decomission. It has a super massive initial investment cost. The bigger a fusion generator and thus the more expensive the more efficient it will be. Fusion is a bigger is better kind of thing. A larger stable reaction produces more energy for same maintenance cost, is easier to contain and safer than a smaller one.

I wouldn't expect any fusion engines anytime soon. A few fusion reactors, but it will be a hard sale. For most people as soon as you say "fusion" and they hear "fission" or "nuclear" and they will run away and not listen any further. Don't even bother mentioning the initial price tag.

Fusion is the best long term solution... but most people don't think about the long term and don't educate themselves enough on the issues to understand the difference between fusion and fission.

PS: Fusion bombs are those massive ones several hundred to thousand times more powerful than the first ones on hiroshima and nagasaki and all their standard atomic bomb ancestors.

As for future weapons... Imagine all the great energy weapons you can use with massive energy sources. Enough to create massive EMP waves without a big nuclear explosion? Lasers? Particle cannons? Mass Drivers? Rail Guns?

[ November 27, 2003, 04:00: Message edited by: Cyrien ]

[Nocturnal]

How far can you take that? Wouldn't it be most efficient to create one very giant fusion reactor to power an entire country the size of, say, the United States? But doesn't that take up a massive amount of rare fuel in one place?

Eventually we will run into the same fuel problems with nuclear power plants that we have with fossil fuels.

I'm into microwave solar energy.