3 ms·
I wouldn't be concerned about this, personally, for the precise reason that it is a fusion device - not fission! Fusion is incredibly difficult just to start,
by xorxornop 1y ago
I wouldn't be concerned about this, personally, for the precise reason that it is a fusion device - not fission!
Fusion is incredibly difficult just to start, let alone keep burning - unlike fission, which is only too happy to enter runaway conditions if not very carefully regulated. Fusion is like a little ember in your fireplace you have to carefully blow on to keep alight; fission is like keeping a fireplace lit by pouring gasoline into it.
- grues-dinner 1y agoI'd say (older-generation) fission is more like having an indoor swimming pool filled with burning gasoline, but keeping the windows shut so there's only enough air for it to burn at the rate you want to heat the house.
- HPsquared 1y agoOr a swimming pool full of those spicy rocket propellents discussed in the book Ignition! which have combustion products like hydrogen fluoride.
- exe34 1y ago"Things I will not work with" - "at this point hydrogen fluoride loses its gentle nature".
- sheepscreek 1y agoWould love to take a look at your library.
- FiatLuxDave 1y agoNot the poster above, but as someone who also has a copy of Ignition! in their library, I think you might enjoy the pdf version: https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pd...
- grues-dinner 1y agoNeither of the hypergolics described in Command and Control seem chill either: the fuel reacts with atmospheric water and oxygen, the oxidizer is in the highest category of poison (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/extracts/command-and-control https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/extracts/command-and-co...). Indeed there's no such thing as a free launch, and that is rocket science.