Human extinction.

[Damocles]

If ITER falls apart through lack of funding, I swear to God I'm done with this fucking species.

"Hey guys, here's a technology that will create constantly clean, unpolluted energy for literally a thousandth of a percent of the cost that we do currently. Can we have so money to build it?"

"No, get fucked. Yee-haw, let's go kill some of them there darkies in Iran"

To be perfectly honest, the engineering challenge to get it onto the grid isn't actually that big of a deal. It is essentially the same as a nuclear fission plant. The first years will have a beam injection device that basically uses the friction of ions colliding to generate heat, which is then absorbed through the walls, cooled into steam which drives a turbine. Sort of how we do it already with rods and water. The years of 2016 onwards is when they state that they will try to DT fusion reactions. That is, taking two Hydrogen isotopes of Deuterium and Tritium then colliding them to produce Helium. Although the initial power generation through magnetic field friction is immensely promising, I personally think that the DT fusion reaction is our "silver bullet" that will provide us that unlimited energy that we are all excited about.

How much will the world change if every person on the planet had access to unlimited energy for almost free? Charging high rates for energy from a fusion reactor doesn't make sense, it's too abundant.

If I was BP, Shell and the rest, I'd be watching this experiment very closely and spunking money into fusion research.

EDIT: Thinking about it, there's an international crisis coming in the shape of a Helium shortage. DT fusion reactions produce Helium as a byproduct. Not quite sure it's of a great quantity or anything, but you never know, it might help us with technology in that direction

 

[wayne71]

You have a knack of making this stuff sound understandable and interesting Damocles.

 

[pauldominic]

Mincemeat? Cheeky so and so.

I concede that I used the wrong word in terms of evolution.

I appoint Damocles as Chief Engineer, SWP's back as Vehicle Systems Engineer and NF as Mission Systems Engineer.

If I told you I've been tinkering with a design for a nuclear powered electro magnetic inertia drive over the last decade can I have a job ;-) .

Absolutely. Take your pick. Propulsion or Fuel System? ;)

 

[Challenger1978]

If ITER falls apart through lack of funding, I swear to God I'm done with this fucking species.

"Hey guys, here's a technology that will create constantly clean, unpolluted energy for literally a thousandth of a percent of the cost that we do currently. Can we have so money to build it?"

"No, get fucked. Yee-haw, let's go kill some of them there darkies in Iran"

To be perfectly honest, the engineering challenge to get it onto the grid isn't actually that big of a deal. It is essentially the same as a nuclear fussion plant. The first years will have a beam injection device that basically uses the friction of ions colliding to generate heat, which is then absorbed through the walls, cooled into steam which drives a turbine. Sort of how we do it already with rods and water. The years of 2016 onwards is when they state that they will try to DT fusion reactions. That is, taking two Hydrogen isotopes of Deuterium and Tritium then colliding them to produce Helium. Although the initial power generation through magnetic field friction is immensely promising, I personally think that the DT fusion reaction is our "silver bullet" that will provide us that unlimited energy that we are all excited about.

How much will the world change if every person on the planet had access to unlimited energy for almost free? Charging high rates for energy from a fusion reactor doesn't make sense, it's too abundant.

If I was BP, Shell and the rest, I'd be watching this experiment very closely and spunking money into fusion research.

EDIT: Thinking about it, there's an international crisis coming in the shape of a Helium shortage. DT fusion reactions produce Helium as a byproduct. Not quite sure it's of a great quantity or anything, but you never know, it might help us with technology in that direction

This is pure science fiction but the thing that excites me the most is. Once we've mastered nuclear fusion the possibilities are endless. We could in theory start using fusion reactors as a means to produce other elements. So instead of mining say for Zinc for batteries for electric cars. We could in theory produce zinc just from hydrogen at a fusion reactor.

So not only is nuclear fusion the holy grail for energy production and great for the environment in that sense. Its also great for the environment in the sense that it might be possible to end mining in the future. Add on nano technology for fabrication and we've got some serious star trek like technology. Its there though just a hundred years or so away if we pulled out our fingers and did something to obtain it.

God i'm depressed now as I know it won't happen. As people are more obsessed with bleeding reality TV than they are with actually improving the human race and advancing ourself, the bastards.

EDIT: pissing spell check got me again I meant fusion not fission

 

[pauldominic]

You have a knack of making this stuff sound understandable and interesting Damocles.

He's well and truly on topic so on that basis I agree.

 

[pauldominic]

Humans must be in space already - has anyone SEEN Star Wars?

I has thinking more along the lines of Moonraker with all those couples paired off and Commander Bond trying to sabotage it.

 

[kippaxwarrior]

Surely everyone knows humans will become extinct on December 21th 2012?

 

[Skashion]

If ITER falls apart through lack of funding, I swear to God I'm done with this fucking species.

"Hey guys, here's a technology that will create constantly clean, unpolluted energy for literally a thousandth of a percent of the cost that we do currently. Can we have so money to build it?"

"No, get fucked. Yee-haw, let's go kill some of them there darkies in Iran"

To be perfectly honest, the engineering challenge to get it onto the grid isn't actually that big of a deal. It is essentially the same as a nuclear fission plant. The first years will have a beam injection device that basically uses the friction of ions colliding to generate heat, which is then absorbed through the walls, cooled into steam which drives a turbine. Sort of how we do it already with rods and water. The years of 2016 onwards is when they state that they will try to DT fusion reactions. That is, taking two Hydrogen isotopes of Deuterium and Tritium then colliding them to produce Helium. Although the initial power generation through magnetic field friction is immensely promising, I personally think that the DT fusion reaction is our "silver bullet" that will provide us that unlimited energy that we are all excited about.

How much will the world change if every person on the planet had access to unlimited energy for almost free? Charging high rates for energy from a fusion reactor doesn't make sense, it's too abundant.

If I was BP, Shell and the rest, I'd be watching this experiment very closely and spunking money into fusion research.

EDIT: Thinking about it, there's an international crisis coming in the shape of a Helium shortage. DT fusion reactions produce Helium as a byproduct. Not quite sure it's of a great quantity or anything, but you never know, it might help us with technology in that direction

 

[pauldominic]

Thats quite something. But with the 150 quadrillion miles to cover to the nearest star, I ask how long would this take? Also how many lifetimes? Children would be born on such a craft, live, produce more children who then like themselves die on this journey.

Actually, PD said the centre of the galaxy rather than the nearest star. Proxima Centauri is about 1.3 parsecs or 24 trillion miles. At current speeds, it would take around 70,000 years to reach it. However, if we travelled at even 10% of the speed of light, it would take only 40 years. 99% of the speed of light would be around 4.5 years.

This is only talking about speed as we see it today. Technologies that create wormholes, or bend spacetime to shorten distances are theoretically possible with enough energy on board. If we combine a high lightspeed velocity and technologies that warp space, the possibilities are obviously greater but far too hard currently to speculate on.

This will pretty much all happen when somebody finds a way to create nuclear fusion in an energy efficient manner.

At the minute, we can create nuclear fission. This is the thing that powers the atom bomb. It's where we take a single Hydrogen atom and rip it apart which causes a huge release of energy hence the bomb.
We need to create nuclear fusion, which is where two Hydrogen atoms are sped up to an enormous speed that when they collide they actually merge into each other, and without boring you with the physics, releases a huge amount of energy. This is the thing that powers the Sun. That's the magnitude of difference in energy released

We can already produce nuclear fusion on Earth in labs but the technology is such that getting the atoms to speed up to the velocity needed to merge into each other is costing us more energy than the reaction is producing. However, we're getting better at it and the project is that within a decade or two we will have the first ever self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactor. It will barely produce any power surplus of course, but it will produce a tiny amount. Nuclear fusion is essentially the thing that will provide every person on the planet with pretty much free and unlimited energy for the rest of time. My personal opinion is that this is the thing that will forever kill the use of fossil fuels for energy, if we can develop it fast enough. It's literally harnessing the power of a Sun.

If we built this into an engine, 5% would be piss easy. Space warping technologies may become more scientific reality than science fiction. I don't envy the guy who has to pilot through space at close to lightspeed though!

This type of energy available would also make supercolliders like CERN about 5 billion quid cheaper. ITER is the major hope for this. They think they can start producing reactions in 2026.

Its a fair point. I chose the centre as an approximation because a planet capable of sustaining life is relatively rare.

I wouldn't like to play chicken with a black hole which poses another challenge of a navigation system.

Dr Fetlocks is on the case. [cheesy grin]

 

[samharris]

I don't think so.

The Sun won't go supernova. It's not big enough, as in enough mass.

Surely it just doesn't burn out? I thought stars explode when they die? I assume this would be the same for the sun?

It will expand as far as mars..we will be vapourised.