3 ms·
A rocket only needs to achieve thermal break-even. A power plant needs to achieve electrical break-even, which includes the unavoidable loss from converting the
by schiffern 14y ago
A rocket only needs to achieve thermal break-even. A power plant needs to achieve electrical break-even, which includes the unavoidable loss from converting the heat to electricity in a heat engine.
In this way a system can be simultaneously useful for space travel but useless for power generation.
- lutusp 14y ago> A rocket only needs to achieve thermal break-even. A power plant needs to achieve electrical break-even ... Yes, all true. But if a fusion reactor ever achieved break-even, that would be such a breakthrough that the specifics would be reduced to footnotes, and both thermal and electrical applications would soon follow. > In this way a system can be simultaneously useful for space travel but useless for power generation. My point is that if break-even were to be achieved, it would be break-even for both applications. The reason is that the plasma conditions for fusion break-even would have much more in common in the two cases than the differences.