Jerry Pournelle reminded his readers of an article he wrote some time ago about how to get to space. In it, he talks about the reasons for the success of the early X projects and the reasons for the failure of current so-called X projects. He also mentions in passing that the principles of a true X project can be applied to areas other than aerospace.
Robert Bussard was working on a small, scalable fusion reactor nearly 'till the day he died. He was working on version 6, which was destroyed in a test. (Read the Pournelle article and understand that this is not a failure, as was commonly reported at the time; it is part of the process.) Work has continued since his death and version 7 is up and running, funded on a shoestring budget. For very little up-front cost and risk, we could have access to a virtually unlimited supply of energy.
Instead we spend $7.5 million per hour in Iraq....
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3 comments:
Well the ME needs re-arranging and our lines of supply to oil need to be secured until we have something else.
BTW I'm a big fan of BFRs.
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion
World's Simplest Fusion Reactor Revisited
Starting A Fusion Program In Your Home Town
I'm not convinced that our $7.5 million per hour is securing supply lines or much of anything else, nor am I convinced that it is the business of these united States to rearrange the borders and/or governments of the Middle East.
I do believe in a multi-pronged approach to energy with the emphasis on technology that integrates with our current infrastructure. X projects will discover the benefits and limitations of a whole host of alternatives in a very short time frame and at little cost in both blood and treasure when compared to our current Forever War. BFR's, garbage-eating microbes that excrete oil, turkey guts turned into oil, pebble-bed reactors, more-efficient batteries, super capacitors, solar power towers; the list is literally endless.
Thanks for the links; much good information there.
If you want to see what Bussard himself recommended the government should do with its money, read this:
http://www.geocities.com/jim_bowery/BussardsLetter.html
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