Talk-Polywell.org

I'd guess that that would kill everyone in the first car since I don't think they will be robust enough. I'm not sure about the deceleration - just hitting a Mach 2 relative air stream might be survivable (should be <6 g based on accelerating the swept cylinder of air to capsule speed for 1.4m^2 fro...

The air isn't evacuated so much as moving. It's the air that moves the cars. The trouble is in moving air supersonically without dissipating all your energy in turbulence and shock wave generation. And if they get a standing shockwave, kiss the tunnel good-by. It might have changed some from the or...

That article is referring to the AJ26-58 (aka NK-33) used on the first stage of the Antares. Which happens to be considered by many as the best LOX/RP-1 engine ever made... It has about 20 sec higher ISP than the SpaceX Merlin 1D, which uses a GG-cycle. They might be designed in the 60´s and more ex...

Remember that the field the SC has to endure is much higher than the field at the center of the coil. For a thick linear conductor the magnetic field is 0 in the middle and increases linearly to the full radius of the conductor. The field outside is the same as for an infinitely thin wire carrying a...

It's always good to make sure that you're speaking about the same thing before getting into an argument, especially online :wink: Take a look at this image (or the others from this post ): http://www.mare.ee/indrek/ephi/polywell_cube_bfield_lines_logcolor.jpg The point cusps are at the center of eac...

I can't say I've seen much detail on the landing gear (or any other important subsystems apart from the SABREs), but I too think that they have done their homework: First, the undercarriage was one of the big problems of HOTOL and went trough numerous iterations, so I think they know they should tak...

After looking at the pictures of the chamber (6-1 and 6-2) I have a few questions for those with some experience with vacuum systems involving high voltage and/or electron/ion guns (or anyone who has an opinion :wink: ) : Does the white rod+box labeled "WARNING HIGH VOLTAGE" seen on the top left of ...

also, wb-6, doedec, or 32-gon? ... and do you think 2r is too close for the faraday cage? maybe 3r instead? just don't want to let the voltage gradient run to infinity, as it does w/no faraday cage. i think that's impacting circulation. but i want to give room for the mag fields (which still _do_ g...

I agree that a check of total charge is the most relevant and simplest thing to do, as you said: duh (slaps palm to forehead). As for a Faraday cage: Well, using the equations above (which I know work, if I just remember them correctly) you'd need the image coils to be at: (2r)^2/r=4r with the linea...

Sounds like a good idea, especially since you didn't see any recirculation at all. I think that image coils have already been discussed in the old thread, but just to check my understanding (for coils made from line segments): The image coils are the same as the ordinary coils, but with radius r_I: ...

Regarding the LHC 'explosion' (which was covered here in detail if I remember correctly) se for example http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-2048/23/3/034001/pdf/sust10_3_034001.pdf page 12. Summary: The SC is surrounded by a Cu bus bar that, in case of a local quench, takes the current while the SC is fo...

@crismb Shouldn't the binding energy be negative the way your using it? As I see it, a free proton has about 8.7MeV 'to give' (i.e. more) relative to sitting in a Cu-63 nucleus. As you would say, it's at the top of the pile. Some of this energy is absorbed by loosening the bonds of the rest of the n...

I'm not entirely sure what you are saying... isn't the 'total binding energy' of Cu-63 6.122MeV higher than that of Ni-62 ? http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=binding+energy+of+copper-63+times+63-binding+energy+of+Nickel-62+times+62 And that of a proton 0MeV? Meaning that a total of 6.122MeV is re...

Yeah, but the reaction is between hydrogen and Ni62 and not Ni62 and Ni62, if that matters. No, it doesn't matter at all. It's like trying to burn water in air. You can suggest that adding some oxygen will change the reaction, but it doesn't because water is already at the lowest energy state. 62Ni...

If you trust wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMES

They are very efficient, up to 95% energy out/energy in, but also expensive.