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Saying a research project is X years away is silly, given that you could get it done faster by throwing money at the problem. The moon landing should have been
by ivankirigin 17y ago
Saying a research project is X years away is silly, given that you could get it done faster by throwing money at the problem.
The moon landing should have been 30 or 40 years away from Kennedy's famed announcement, but it was given a high priority.
Nuclear Fusion hasn't gotten enough funding, imho. Solar too.
- wlievens 17y agoSomewhat true, but there's an important difference between an engineering challenge and a research challenge. I know next to nothing about nuclear science, but I guess that fusion will require breakthroughs. Moon landings - while not particularly easy - simply require a lot of quality engineering. Engineering like that is mostly a function of the bags of money you throw at it.
- ivankirigin 17y agoFrom my limited understanding, it is just iterative improvements in fusion that are required. You shoot a laser at something compressed in a strong magnetic field, and use the dissipating heat from fusion to boil water to spin turbines to power the laser and magnet. This whole process already works, but doesn't net energy gains. Improvements in efficiency of the laser, magnets, or power gen could make it tip into net energy gains. It's still an engineering problem from then on, as you need to compete on $/Kwh.