Reply To: EmDrive + Focus Fusion = Space Access for all?

[Brian H]

Aeronaut wrote:

All the above points are indeed true, but I’m still not clear how far over unity one needs to be for economic viability, nor where other fusion approaches would sit on that curve. (For that matter, I’m not sure what the relative “mine to outlet” energy gain is for coal-fired or nuclear powerplants — does anyone have estimates on that?)

As far as I know FF is closer to unity (or above) than any of the other approaches. The big question is: can it get high enough above unity? Many of the other systems need to be physically scaled up (very expensive) to achieve unity or above. Even then there is no guarantee that they will be economical.

We need to play the ball where it lays. Once the bandwagon begins rolling, a lot of fresh capital and talent will come out of the woodwork to figure out how to improve the various efficiencies. Until then, we have a machine that is more than adequate for making the steam to heat buildings and melt plastics and many metals. It’s going to do this with or without breaking even electrically. The electrical output is the icing on the cake.

I disagree, of course. The fundamental design of FF is to generate electricity; the heat is either icing on the cake or urine in the punch. ;-P
In general, ANYTHING above unity would do, I think. The Tokamak and similar designs project numbers in the low single digits, IIRC. They’re just heat engines, of course. Once FF attains/exceeds unity, it will attract more than money; there will be brainpower and ingenuity applied en masse to refine and maximize its output.