4 ms·

Pretty amazing that the simple Stirling engine can be the best choice for generating kilowatts of power in a hostile environment.

• esmi 8y ago
  It’s simplicity is probably what makes it the best choice.
• jjoonathan 8y ago
  The magic comes from the nuclear half, not the Stirling half.
  • dgoodell 8y ago
    The free piston stirling engines required also operate via magic and few people understand them well enough to make one suitable for this purpose. The engines required for a reactor like this haven’t been designed yet and it would take years of effort before They would be designed and approved for flight use. For this test they used a couple of undersized (<100W) stirling engines and the rest were just thermal simulators.
    • jjoonathan 8y ago
      Stirling Engines exceed their competition by percentage points. Nuclear energy exceeds its competition by orders of magnitude. I stand by my statement that the magic comes from the nuclear half of this relationship -- so long as we accept a definition of magic related to, you know, energy production, rather than effort or hipster points.