The greatest feat of human engineering ever achieved by man

originally posted by: shawmanfromny
a reply to: dfnj2015

NSA records every phone conversation. Maybe they have an idea where he disappeared to.

This happened 30 years ago. I'm not sure NSA was fully capable during the late 80s.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: LSU2018

The first person to come up with a viable working design that can consistently keep that plasma contained and away from the walls will have essentially solved the world's energy demands for the next 500 years.

It's posts like this that kill me. I would have created the thread if it was just speculation:

Remarkable fidelity

The design is plenty good enough for prime time. They are just very slow to run longer than just a few minutes. But in this context, a few minutes is essentially eternity.

a reply to: Bluntone22

The dangers are not the same through should things go wrong you will get a big explosion in the kiloton range.

Turn the power off and the reaction is not self-sustainable.

No radioactive particulate matter sprinkled all over the continent, just big hole in the ground about a kilometer across should things go pear-shaped.

It's actually a hell of a lot safer than fission reaction power generation, nevermind a hell of a lot harder to achieve and maintain.

Unless cold fusion is a thing of course.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: dfnj2015
Unless you've been around a super-genius you really have no idea how smart people can be.

Daily. So I get it.

I'm waiting for the miniaturized Mr. Fusion version for home use.

Silly man, you already have one.



Coh, you masons.. so behind technology... oh wait, that's the amish...

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: dfnj2015


I don't remember having this conversation with you but if you say it happened it happened.

2 minutes? That's enough time for the police to arrive just after you got there.

Oo

I always come pre prepared.

a reply to: Edumakated

You can be taught intelligence. You have to live to be wise.

Any machine can tell you anything... except why.

a reply to: dfnj2015

This brought to mind something I had read a few months back. Scientists engaging the use of an AI to predict destructive disruptions and make the necessary adjustments in the system to keep the reaction going.

Harvard / Princeton Research "Containing the Sun"

As I understand it, containment and sustaining the reaction are the biggest challenges. We're getting closer, and I believe fusion power will be viable in decades, not centuries. I won't try to guess whether its 20 years or 80 years away, but it should usher in a golden age and giant leaps forward for humanity.

If allowed to be properly used, large-scale fusion power will be able to provide abundant energy, abundant clean water with desalination plants for drinking water and irrigation, leading to abundant food. Its the Holy Grail of science currently, and while we're not there yet, we're going down the path!

a reply to: FlyinHeadlock

Calm down you are over reacting
As if I care about US strategy and what you studied in school, beat your drum somewhere else.
I said i think the US would have had a pretty tough time if they went up against Germany on their own, they didn’t, they were fortunate

Britain was at war with Germany long before the US, Russia was invaded in 41 and had the Eastern Front and that was where the war was won and lost in Europe

The US came in to the war in early 42
Germany was being stretched

Atomic bombs were dropped after The Nazi party conceded so that fantastic and awesome point you raised is irrelevant

Why don’t you go back to your modern warfare class and ask the question instead of thinking like a mutt

a reply to: dfnj2015

The idea has been around for a a few decades. The computing power needed to catch up to what was envisioned. That took over a decade to happen!

The fully optimized stellerator is the result. And, yes, W7-X is a thing of wonder! Everything about it was measured, designed, constructed, with computer controlled precision that no other fusion reactor design has met. Each step has exceeded calculations and it has broken 7 records for a stellerator fusion reactor... and it has not reached its design limits!!

The new super computers have been used to further redesign the magnetic confinement fields so less magnets are required. And they using 90’s superconductor tech which has newer high temperature versions that when combined make even stronger magnetic fields which means the reactor size decreases (AM’s Mr. Fusion is not a joke! The ITER reactor is. Which is why private companies are in the chase... including Lockheed which has a totally different design that actually makes sense).

Like different types of engines we will have different fusion reactors.

We are so close!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: dfnj2015

The idea has been around for a a few decades. The computing power needed to catch up to what was envisioned. That took over a decade to happen!

The fully optimized stellerator is the result. And, yes, W7-X is a thing of wonder! Everything about it was measured, designed, constructed, with computer controlled precision that no other fusion reactor design has met. Each step has exceeded calculations and it has broken 7 records for a stellerator fusion reactor... and it has not reached its design limits!!

The new super computers have been used to further redesign the magnetic confinement fields so less magnets are required. And they using 90’s superconductor tech which has newer high temperature versions that when combined make even stronger magnetic fields which means the reactor size decreases (AM’s Mr. Fusion is not a joke! The ITER reactor is. Which is why private companies are in the chase... including Lockheed which has a totally different design that actually makes sense).

Like different types of engines we will have different fusion reactors.

We are so close!

Great post! I love your optimism. I just love this work. This type of work will impact every person on the planet for the better. How many technologies can say this? Every other piece of technology is meant to leverage the masses into poverty and centralize wealth. A hot fusion reactor allows for cheap abundant energy while dramatically reducing the World's carbon footprint in a significant way. We need to think big if we ever want to improve the quality of life in our only life support system. We can wallow in our own unprocessed sewage. Or we can create clean and beautiful communities worth living in.

a reply to: dfnj2015

All the power to them, quite literally.

The reason they can't run them longer than a few minutes is down to the limitations of material science and the generation of magnetic field strength.

Like the article says years of plasma physics research will be needed to find out if their stellarator design is up to the task.

That's so they don't kill themselves or anyone else.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Every time I hear “We could do ‘X’ but it is too expensive...”

What happens when you have an abundance of energy?? Those excuses disappear. We can clean the ocean and the atmosphere when electricity is not at a premium. That is where my optimism springs from... and that happened after thinking through Lockheed’s announcement in 2014.

I had a couple beers and ran the projector forward and I see where it leads. We are heading to the stars!!

Just for a left field choice of man's greatest feat of humble engineering, how about the humble needle? I know, not very adventurous right?

However, i once read an article from a collection of leading archeologists, anthropologists and historians arguing for just that. The reasoning actually blew my mind when they started to go into it. Essentially, once we invented the needle, we could make clothes to keep warm. We could make baskets, etc, to store food. We could make nets to catch food. The list went on and on but the key aspect is that all of these activities gave us time to pursue other aspects like eventually forming society, inventing religion, etc. Essentially, without the needle, we would still be hunter gatherers with no time to develop all other aspects of civilization.

Or, in other words, things like space stations, nuclear fusion, etc, would all be a pipe dream without the humble needle.

a reply to: Flavian

How about the Hubble Space Telescope aside from the slight mirror glitch.

Considering the information gathered and gleaned regarding our universe.

a reply to: andy06shake

Good shout Andy but the killer is that without our ancestors coming up with the needle, we would never have got to around to farming, let alone making instruments to send into space.

The more i think about it, the more i am sticking with the needle.

a reply to: Flavian

Well, they do say "a stitch in time saves nine"

Very odd thing wendelstin 7-x
it looks like its made to makes the plasma spin!
why can they not just do this with magnetic fields?

will it give out radiation?
or do we wait to fry to find out?
If it fails. the flash will be so bright,
the sun will be blinded.
not good for earth life!

if it brakes it Heats ever thing around it
every thing around it would explode!!!!

it would make a Great space weapon.
fire super hot plasma form a plasma collider.
Like cern super collider, but smaller.
you dont need that speed.

they thought that the first nuclear
bomb would set fire to the atmosphere.
this time they will do it!

a reply to: buddha

We already have fusion weaponry.

Granted they still require a fission "primary" explosive to ignite, same bang all the same

And this type of fusion reactor won't give out nor produce harmful radiation nor will they ignite our atmosphere if anything goes wrong.

Just a big melted pile of reactor components and a considerable explosion.

Consider through that in any installation related to the transformation of energy from one form into another, that includes significant high-energy-states, there exists the possibility of an explosion.

This Stellarator is no different in that respect to any other piece of technology linked to the generation of power.

a reply to: FlyinHeadlock

Lmao... The Germans most certainly did not make better tanks in world war 2! (and they still don't)

Their tanks were a joke and you'd know that if you read anything but absolutely trash tier material on tanks.

Belton Cooper is an idiot and German tanks were a joke.

a reply to: dfnj2015

great post