Can Bussard save the world?

[TerrysID]

http://www.kschroeder.com/1163900280. (I've already em'd the NYT to have science writers check on this. I'm an engineering type so not my field. Sounds important if true, though....)

[[Tycho?]]

Here's the thing. If he was right, and cheap clean fusion was indeed this easy....... where the hell is it? Why has nobody built one? Why is NASA not all over this? Why are scientists around the world not shouting with joy that someone figured it out?

 

I remain highly skpetical, I doubt this will come through.

[5614]

There are, sadly, hundred of websites like this, and they're basically all wrong.

 

If something this big was true then you would read and hear about it all over the media. And at that point it's worth investigating, because whilst the media seems to have little scientific knowledge, they can at least filter most of the rubbish that's around us. I'm not saying use the media as you're income of scientific news; I'm just saying that any major breakthroughs would be reported in the media.

[D H]

;312843'']Why is NASA not all over this?

 

A bit off-topic, but why in the world should NASA be all over this one? NASA gets less than 1% of the federal budget. They are already stretched beyond the limit doing what the President and Congress asks them to do now. Last I checked, developing new power generation techniques is not under NASA's purview.

[CPL.Luke]

actually that a legitamate line of research, IEC devices have been around for ages but nobody could get them to work.

 

I always thought that it was the most promising line of research.

 

 

And you can make tabletop versions of this with hardware parts, there was some student up at ohio state who was able to build one of them.

 

also check this out

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_electrostatic_confinement

 

 

I think the first one was made back in the thirties actually

[CPL.Luke]

also in the presentation given at google's tech talks he says that he was funded by the navy for the past 11 years under their advanced power systems programs. They believed that the devices could be used to power large ships without the danger of nuclear disaster.

[[Tycho?]]

A bit off-topic, but why in the world should NASA be all over this one? NASA gets less than 1% of the federal budget. They are already stretched beyond the limit doing what the President and Congress asks them to do now. Last I checked, developing new power generation techniques is not under NASA's purview.

 

If this technology were actually cheap, easy and clean then NASA would be all over for its use in spacetravel. NASA is always looking for new tech, and this would be extremely useful to them.

[TerrysID]

A poster (elsewhere) suggested that this is a ploy to scare the oil-producing countries to treat us fairly or else. (Conspiracy theories abound about anything, of course.) Also if this is privately developed, then developement 'particulars' would be kept under wraps until it was 'protected.'

[CPL.Luke]

if you watched the video the guy pretty much gave everything away in a relatively untechnical manner (he was talking to investors for the most part).

 

he's planning on publishing a paper in a journal soon, and was funded by the navy for the pst ten years.

 

 

this guy is real, and he is presenting real science

[Bluenoise]

http://www.kschroeder.com/1163900280. (I've already em'd the NYT to have science writers check on this. I'm an engineering type so not my field. Sounds important if true, though....)

 

 

Ummm that link you gave links to a page titled "Karl Schroeders Science Fiction"...

[CPL.Luke]

that page also linked to a google talks video, I think its just some scifi writer's blog.

[TerrysID]

In 'essence' they replied: "Wait..." (As in: 'Standby', I suppose....) Incidently, has anyone checked any other boards about Bussard? (I haven't found anything substantial [such as a transcript of the video] yet. Oh, well.)