[Aeronaut]

The challenge with real science is the unknowns, such as the switches and trigger challenges. Imagine what’s going on behind the scenes in labs that are required to use electromagnets for confinement! Then throw in pB-11 and you’re pretty much pioneering.

[Aeronaut]

Here’s the message that I think is going to be the easiest to sell to the non-scientific crowd: “This thing generates the strongest magnetic fields ever produced, equaling those on a neutron star, without huge external magnets”.

This begs to continue into who needs the world’s strongest mag fields and why, which of cuss leads directly into the capital expense. Hey, I like where that’s going!

[Aeronaut]

We’re better off imo to just drop those topics cold, and definitely not mention them with a link which G might interpret as endorsement of same, even if they’re no-follow links.

[Aeronaut]

The deuterium phase is pretty much about getting the entire system calibrated and functioning as designed, so that the theory can be tested and hopefully proved in a fuel which most fusion researchers are very familiar with. The decaborane is almost sure to present its own learning curve, with unity or over-unity operation as the prize. For that reason, I’m not looking at yield as much as challenges solved and challenges outstanding. Come mid to late September I’d expect to see the decaborane at least beginning to pay its way on the yield charts.

[Aeronaut]

Not pessimistic, just recalling something I saw on the evening news a few months back that the Texas school system, being the largest buyer of textbooks in the US, largely determines what goes into textbooks. They were thinking about revising something or other in a social studies book, which will ripple out as “fact” with no review. That’s not exactly the way I was taught that this country works :-S

On a more positive note, can anybody link me to a place that sells or makes those cool touchscreen monitors? I’ve wanted one of those ever since I saw Iron Man!

[Aeronaut]

It’s not my demand, Brian, it’s my plan of attacking a lot of thorny physics and engineering challenges (not to mention the people challenges) in such a manner as to lead by an example that attempts to identify and challenge every last one of my (and my organization’s) hidden assumptions of what may or may not be possible, practical, or desirable. My biggest set of questions right now revolves around how fast a gazelle corporation (think national sales office network such as realty) can be grown from less than $500- and possibly less than $200- to 10,000 US offices. (!!)

A company plowing its profits back into expansion can grow pretty much tax-free by US tax strategy (note a hidden assumption, btw). By growing through the FF-oriented magnet school layer and into the manufacturing layer, and then onto the space elevator phase, and writing about it, nobody has any idea what the near future really can look like other than WOW!

If FF succeeds at all, its going to be due to a small core group who won’t take no or “one of these decades” for an answer. It’s a group who values their time. You need to prove your potential to join that group, imo.

[Aeronaut]

It’s been said in copy writing that people buy “results” as well as the stature of the media which one advertises in. I see 3 distinct audiences that we need to reach almost simultaneously-

1. Showing the general public a visual (at least) of their world enriched by fusion energy. With or without a call to action. The purpose of this is to make the concept(s) easier for the business and or political worlds to promote;

2. Showing the business world the incredible leadership vacuum and profit potential of backing further LPP research;

3. Showing the bureaucrats that this is going to happen, and inviting them to lead the way to at least a triple bottom line.

My platforms of choice are the iPhone and Droid, possibly the Dell Streak. I confirmed last night that fairly targeted clicks can be had for as little as 5 cents each, covering all of North America. Geo-targeting can be as local as the city level. This can be the basis of quizzes which could hand the viewer off to a set of YT links, and so on.

If we have any Ajax/ Java programmers in the house, a pair of apps to the iphone and droid stores could buy LPP some more time without necessarily requiring another round of funding.

[Aeronaut]

Wow. 90dB sounds fantastic, but achieving it sounds like a mechanical nightmare. Would welding the enclosures to ground achieve the same results? Also, would locating the DPF below grade increase attenuation enough to be worth considering?

[Aeronaut]

emmetb wrote:

Rezwan, imagine the furniture savings and productivity gains of equipping nearly half a million workstations with those podiums.

Not to mention the savings in color dye, once we strip our youth from having an individual personality, and dress them accordingly.

That’s the scary part, Emmet. Who picks the values, curriculum, and so on? Will most people ever know who’s shaping their thoughts and or their offspring’s thoughts? Not likely, imo.

[Aeronaut]

Brian, I agree with all posts on this thread except for yours. Henning hit the nail square on the head. I think the Green Movement got started in the late 60’s with the book “Spaceship Earth” and Earth Day. They’re well organized and backed because they paid their dues and slogged through their wilderness for probably over 40 years. This leads to the obvius question of what do you know about “them”, and how do you “know this”? I’d guess it’s humanly impossible to catalog all of “their” writings, ideas, forum posts, etc. without a HUGE staff and perhaps several years. Hence you’re cherry-picking your information, same as I often do.

This is not a blanket endorsement of the group or its politics- only the professional respect due to a group with a dream who was able to make it come true.

I first challenged you last year(?) to post as if you’d actually tried to figure out how to build or manufacture a FF, because I have on many occasions, so it was obvious that you haven’t, as you’ve failed to show evidence of trying to think outside of enough boxes to give FF a fighting chance of widespread deployment within 5 years.

This included the onion fabrication techniques and tooling chain (to name just a few requirements), and I recently posted some moderately educated guesses about maintenance and operating costs based on what I hope is a far to frequent quarterly core swap interval as per NRC regulation. The bottom line on the heat issue is that until an onion is mass produced and the price falls accordingly, you’ll need to explain to the business world where the electricity is going to come from, and all the questions which that will leave your position exposed to.

You will find that you need to build bridges in order to do anything meaningful in life.

[Aeronaut]

vansig wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09krugman.html?_r=1

What does this NY times article portend for government policies affecting the funding of scientific research,
including fusion?

It seems to me to say “no change at the federal level, but it could take a lot longer to trickle down to local schools”. I doubt this is going to happen without a new entrepreneurial class which can self-fund their businesses and work effectively with local governments. If it catches on, it could lead Washington into the 21st century.

[Aeronaut]

zapkitty wrote:

If I understand correctly, a charged particle beam is created by the fusion reaction in the plasmoid. The beam will exit the pinch and be directed to the solenoid, which converts the concentrated energy into electricity. I presume this will be hot, as with a lightning strike? And it will be focused into a beam which would mean a small surface area will be impacted. Can it be absorbed without damage to the solenoid, long term?

?…

I’d assumed that the power takeoff for the alpha particles would be via pass-through coils and thus no physical impact with anything until the helium ions had been slowed way down by those coils?

As this is a very predictable beam one doesn’t need plates scattered across the interior of the containment volume ala a polywell and thus no need for impacts.

It’s the electron beam heading in the opposite direction that would pose a threat to equipment.

Also like the polywell, the electric output pulses will very likely have verry high voltages, which would lead to higher currents. Any way you slice it, this is a lot of power in a very small volume, I expect it to need hefty cooling, which the patent confirms near the end. The patent assumes that the onion is going to be the biggest set of challenges to commercializing FF as an electric generator. Cooling and manufacturing in any kind of volume are significant engineering challenges in their own right.

[Aeronaut]

I’ll settle for resume execution, prove his aces in the hole tp his satisfaction for the final sprint to the fusion line, and so on. Maybe the visual should look more like a pole vault.

[Aeronaut]

Sorry, Zap, I didn’t follow Derrick’s link until just now. Sounded too much like a nazi regime. But their concept, set, and story set the bar high. I’m glad they provided credits.

Rezwan, imagine the furniture savings and productivity gains of equipping nearly half a million workstations with those podiums. 🙂

[Aeronaut]

A partial update is available on the Science on a Budget discussion at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-Fusion-Society/205597630257?v=app_2373072738 .To see what’s missing, especially the trained analyses of the Staff, become a Contributing Member today!

[Author]

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