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Filling HDDs with Helium seems like a bad idea since the Earth is running out of Helium.[1] Increasing prices could very well make the technology infeasible be
by tarice 14y ago
Filling HDDs with Helium seems like a bad idea since the Earth is running out of Helium.[1]
Increasing prices could very well make the technology infeasible before it even comes to market.
[1]http://digitaljournal.com/article/321439 http://digitaljournal.com/article/321439
- Udo 14y agoAs long as we have enough to fill it into toy balloons en masse and drive airships with it we'll probably have enough to fill up those drives. On the other hand you're right, Helium is a precious resource - one of many that could be feasibly mined elsewhere in the solar system (in the hopefully not-so-far future).
- andrewflnr 14y agoAs long as we're thinking about that timescale, it's one of the easier elements to fuse from "raw ingredients".
- dhughes 14y agoAnd it's the only compressed gas that gets down to -270C for cooling MRI machines, hydrogen only gets to -253C and is much more dangerous.
- K2h 14y ago... and they use it in NMR. I think the one at the local university takes several dewars of helium just to bring it online.
- wisty 14y agoThe cost of helium will be insignificant. He has a molecular mass of 4, so 4 grams gives you 22.4 liters at standard temperature and pressure. So 1 gram of helium should give you about 50 drives (at 100cc each). Helium is like, 25 cents a gram. 2 cents a hard drive. If it goes up 100 times in price, it'll still be cheap compared to the cost of the drive ($2 a drive). It'll probably still be cheap, compared to the added cost of sealing the drive.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- abecedarius 14y agoI wanted to say "Eh, we can always fuse some more", but running low by 2025? That's pretty damn soon.
- greglindahl 14y agoYeah, we all know that commercial nuclear fusion reactors are 50 years in the future.
- lucian1900 14y agoCommercial fusion reactors that don't generate energy? Totally.
- maximilianburke 14y agoI was hoping to take some technical diving courses but it sounds like the raw materials price is going to go up. Helium is often mixed with nitrogen and oxygen to provide gas mixtures to reduce the narcotic impact of nitrogen. I think there's been some experimentation with hydrogen/oxygen mixtures but they're a relatively low concentration of oxygen (4%), not to mention that it scares the hell out of me. I wonder what the effect on divers, recreational or professional, will be if/when helium is either too expensive to use for deep diving or just not available? Perhaps neon/oxygen, though that would also be very expensive.
- jcampbell1 14y agoPlease stop spreading this "running out of heilium" nonsense. Natural gas contains plenty of helium, and making LNG produces helium as a byproduct. As soon as the US Government stops liquidating it's Cold War reserve of helium at super low prices, every LNG facility will compress the helium and sell it. Thanks to fracking, and a return of LNG production in the US, there will be plenty of helium for the foreseeable future.
- richardjordan 14y agoNatural gas has single digits percentages of Helium. It's still a finite resource on sensible timescales (yes radioactive decay replenishes supply eventually). It has many important uses. There are good reasons to object to it being squandered in children's party balloons.
- tarice 14y agoI seriously doubt that even at higher prices it would not be commercially viable to extract Helium from Natural Gas reserves. The tiny amount of Helium contained in Natural Gas probably isn't worth the investment to separate out, especially since the company would probably have to separate it from Nitrogen or another non-reactive gas (liquify air => expensive). In which case, they'd just release it into the atmosphere.