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These things always seem like they would be so hopelessly fragile and finicky that nobody would commit to them to do real work. By the time we can build these
by jcims 6y ago
These things always seem like they would be so hopelessly fragile and finicky that nobody would commit to them to do real work.
By the time we can build these we should be up to our eyeballs in fusion energy. Seems like you could just build giant 50km railguns to blast raw materials and a kick stage into orbit and leave rockets for the squishy payloads.
- aaron695 6y agoWatch the movie or doco on Dr Gerald Bull It probably doesn't take anything special like a 50km railgun. We probably could have one by now if we had of just not stopped Gerald Bull's Canadian funding rather than assassinating him. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109650/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109650/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvL9qcJKqOw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvL9qcJKqOw
- jcims 6y agoVery familiar and totally agree. I had plans to make a basic light gas gun a while back but never followed through...probably a good thing lol
- ncmncm 6y agoIf you wait for fusion to work before you do something, be prepared to die first.
- adrianN 6y agoWe are a lot further along with fusion than with alternatives to massive rockets.
- ncmncm 6y agoI expect to die long before we get useful magnetic-confinement D-D fusion. There are a lot of alternatives being worked on, with venture money, that might yield before I die. But the Tokamaks have always been a jobs program to maintain a good population of high-neutron-flux techs ready to draw upon for weapons programs. It is why p-B fusion has never attracted any gov money: no neutrons.
- jcims 6y agoNo loss, I’m already prepared to die before seeing square dancing spacecraft.