secondwisemonkey Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Somebody is building a starship. The engines are being manufactured in France......Fusion Drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unity+ Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Somebody is building a starship. The engines are being manufactured in France......Fusion Drive Can't you at least quote a part of the article when presenting the news? This just seems unprofessional to just post a random statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdEarl Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 (edited) Although fusion technology is being researched, it is far from being perfected. A number of projects exist to build launch vehicles, but the only ones I have heard of are intended to launch into LEO, to the Moon, or to another planet within the Solar system. We have not yet put a man on Mars. Only three space missions, launched over 30 years ago are considered to be on interstellar missions, AFAIK, and they will run out of power long before they come close to another star (see Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and Pioneer 10). Interstellar travel is considered possible, but difficult and expensive, with no possibility of return on investment. The nearest star is about 4 light years distant ( 37 817 019 822 000 kilometers). Pioneer 10 travels about 50,000 km/h, which means it would take about 86,000 years to get to the nearest star. At this time we have no electronics (e.g., computer) that will operate for that length of time without failure. Thus, we have no hope at this time of building a successful starship. Even if we did have self repairing equipment, the cost of an interstellar ship would be high, and returning from such an adventure in more than 172K years means no one could benefit economically from it. Without self repairing machinery, the probability that any organization or government is building a starship is very remote, except for the possibility of an unmanned robot to follow it the tradition of the Voyager and Pioneer interstellar craft. The purpose of such a craft might be to map the Ort cloud, explore the Kuiper Belt, or identify comets before they are visible from Earth. Discovering comets still in the Kuiper Belt would help protect Earth from comets impacts large enough to destroy life, but it is unlikely one craft would be enough. A better system would be to have a fleet of craft orbiting in or near the Kuiper belt, each with telescopes to search for comets that might impact the Earth. Such projects would span many decades or centuries; thus, they are unlikely to be attempted by people whose lives rarely span a century. Edited January 1, 2014 by EdEarl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondwisemonkey Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 At the meagre cost of some 3 Billion Euros plus, the French Government has now commenced construction of it's Fusion-based power plant. Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdEarl Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 If it works, it will demonstrate technological feasibility of fusion power. However, a 500 MW power plant typically costs three orders of magnitude less; thus, technological feasibility does not imply it will be practical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondwisemonkey Posted January 2, 2014 Author Share Posted January 2, 2014 I hate to say it, but the French have never been reknowned for the strength of their convictions. Therefore, it beggers belief that the French have taken a 'leap of faith' to commence construction of a facility of this magnitude for the purpose of generating power using an the unproven method of 'Fusion'. However, through further research, and to my utter astonishment, I discover that the French are being assisted both financially and technologicaly. This assistance is coming from the Chinese, Indians, Russians and,.....surprise, surprise the Americans. So.....the question here to be asked is, with these kind of $'s being invested, why is no one jumping up and down to take credit and get their due 'pat on the back'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 ! Moderator Note secondwisemonkey, this is the Science News section. You need to provide links to stories for any and all of these revelations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secondwisemonkey Posted January 2, 2014 Author Share Posted January 2, 2014 World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor to be Built with Enterprise Engineering Technology from Intergraph® News story link provided. commercial url deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdEarl Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 Enterprise Engineering Technology does not mean the spaceship Enterprise, but enterprise as in business enterprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor to be Built with Enterprise Engineering Technology from Intergraph® News story link provided. ! Moderator Note That's merely a link to a commercial site, which will be deleted as it's against the rules. How about a link to an actual article that confirms what you have claimed? edit: http://www.intergraph.com/assets/pressreleases/2012/10-03-2012.aspx This is about ITER, which is an experimental facility (i.e. it does not produce net power) and they are using software from this company. Nothing about spaceships or propulsion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts