Lockheed says makes breakthrough on Fusion Energy project

originally posted by: Nochzwei
This is certainly good news, though I do have a sneaky suspicion, this will invariably fizzle out, in less than 2 years
a reply to: Nicorette

This is the equivalent of Google coming out and saying, "We are confident we can create sentient artificial intelligence within 10 years." That is how revolutionary nuclear fusion will be not just for the energy industry but for all of us.

A publicly traded company like Lockheed does not launch a careful PR campaign like this if there is no fire behind all this smoke. Yes of course the development could still fail, research and science is hard. But this is not a penny stock scam or some Apple type marketing nonsense.

In fact, you almost never see a Fortune 500 company come out and say, "We think we are five years away from a prototype of one of the most revolutionary technologies in human history."

a reply to: QuietSpeech

Urge... to pun.... increasing...

But yes, Railguns use tremendous amounts of power. And the capacitors needed for them are also tremendous.

Ah, but what a small price to pay for the awesome power of the Railgun.

Me? Noo.... I'm not bias.

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Not sure how you guys got onto railguns from this?

a reply to: Nicorette

I don't know either, but I think of it as a happy accident.

Imagine the implications for defense. Previously, Railguns were delegated to life aboard Nuclear Carriers/Destroyers. A viable compact fusion reactor would allow Railgun technology to be deployed to ground based artillery.

I want to live in such a world.

a reply to: Nicorette

I think I read somewhere that basketball size fusion reactors have been viable since the 60s. Don't know about the credibility all the same however the main hurdle i imagine is basketball or minivan size aside someone will inevitably try and weaponize such a device for their own nefarious purposes.

www.archivum.info...

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

I am not familiar with railguns outside of videogames or science fiction. I don't think actually exist in the real world, do they? Or are you referring to the devices in experimental physics labs like CERN that accelerate subatomic particles at each other, the Large Hadron Collider?

a reply to: Nicorette

The Navy has been developing them for years now. There were some interesting stumbling blocks.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It has been my understanding that at least a few have been deployed to Nuclear carriers or destroyers, since they're the only pieces of military hardware with the electrical "oomph" to fire them. Although in April they did announce they were deploying a few to some Spearhead JHSV's

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Not yet. A carrier is all they could go on. They got rid of the last nuclear powered cruiser many years ago. Carriers are all that's left besides subs.

Something that can shoot a projectile at mach 5, up to 250 miles would be amazing...imagine if they had a high rate of fire to boot...

a reply to: MystikMushroom

A girl can dream.

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Ah! That's the military application for a 100 MW power plant with negligible energy costs, right there. Quite aside aircraft, spacecraft and even naval propulsion.

The projectile wouldn't even have to be explosive, you could run it up to crazy speeds, it would be like a meteor impact. Wow.

a reply to: Nicorette

Imagine if you could fire 500 rounds a minute at mach 5. You could turn a mountain into Swiss cheese pretty quickly.

originally posted by: Daughter2
Hopefully, this should make oil prices go down. If people think there will be a huge drop off in twenty years, they will likely increase production now.

I do wonder if the announcement is linked with political pressure. After all, some countries are going to lose much of their power. China must be thrilled.

Think about the bigger picture who benefits and why now?

www.theguardian.com...

You may have noticed that the divestment will happen over the next 5 years.

We are drip fed information slowly

Imagine how many reactors will it take to lift a much larger craft into space?
Exploring the stars to setup an outpost or scientific research, is it feasible to only send 2-6 people in a small craft, rather than larger one with more capacity etc.

Well the in Star Trek, The USS Enterprise (Galaxy Glass) uses fusion reactors to power it's impulse engines for sub-light speeds. We may someday be using some kind of fusion reactor ourselves.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: Nicorette

Imagine if you could fire 500 rounds a minute at mach 5. You could turn a mountain into Swiss cheese pretty quickly.

Yeah.

You can also power the energy grid without pollution, without ripping up more of Appalachia or the Canadian tar sands. You can shut down all the Chernobyls, Fukushimas, the Three Mile Islands -- Fusion is orders of magnitude safer and cleaner than Fission. You could keep stupid nationalist terrorist states North Korea, Saudi Arabia and all their guerrilla puppets off the grid and on the run.

You can build arcologies in the ocean, have almost neverending fresh water through desalination. We could actually support those bloated giant populations predicted by current demographics. You could put humans on the Moon and Mars for good, start sending probes to Alpha Centauri.

Blowing up a building with a mech seems like an afterthought.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Maybe certain planes.

With plasma balls.

a reply to: AboveBoard

hehehe....

My tin foil hat is tingling as well.

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

I was thinking of the integrated power systems mentioned in the article below, which could have a tie in with the OP.

Future ships like the Zumwalt class of destroyers with "integrated power systems" that make it really easy to assign electrical power can get around this. The Navy is keeping open the option of outfitting current ships with railguns, as they can bring batteries storing the extra power needed on board. The Navy is going to test the railgun at sea in 2016 from the back of the USNS Millinocket, a transport and supply ship.

www.popsci.com... s-fire-its-ridiculously-strong-railgun-ocean

a reply to: Nicorette

Oh god powered Mecha suits. I didn't even consider that.

I have to wait ten years for this?!

I want to pre-order a Gundam NOW.