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Space Experts Discuss Wish List

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 3:08 am
by DeltaV
Space Experts Discuss Wish List

Doesn't say in what forum their discussion was held. The quotes below should be enough to get NASA to fund Polywell. I also have a bridge for sale if you think that will happen.
“Game-changing” technology for future space exploration should include nuclear-fusion propulsion that could enable trips to Mars in the two weeks NASA’s space shuttles normally spend in space, according to a panel of longtime space science experts.

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NASA’s Fiscal 2011 budget calls for a major investment in technology development to enable future exploration. But while Grunsfeld and others extolled the virtues of nuclear fusion as a game-changing in-space propulsion technology, it is not listed as part of the technology-development effort. Neither is a search for new ways of getting to space.

Access to space isn’t on the charts, and that is to me one of the biggest game changers out there,” said Walt Faulconer, former chief scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “If you go back to the rocket equation, the biggest part of the delta-v is getting off the planet.”
My thoughts exactly.

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:48 pm
by D Tibbets
Access to space is certainly important, but is already available, though expensive. Human exploration of space beyond the Moon is not, unless huge expenses and risks are accepted. Of course robots are doing an admirable job of exploration, so the key here is the "human' aspect.

Dan Tibbets

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:54 pm
by GIThruster
Where is the quote above from? Where is there a list of future technology development effort at NASA?

What was said by POTUS most recently on this subject was that NASA would be investing heavily in future propulsion science and I know there are Poly sympathizers at NASA. I would be very surprised if NASA did not jump on the Poly band wagon, even if very late.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:23 am
by MSimon
GIThruster wrote:Where is the quote above from? Where is there a list of future technology development effort at NASA?

What was said by POTUS most recently on this subject was that NASA would be investing heavily in future propulsion science and I know there are Poly sympathizers at NASA. I would be very surprised if NASA did not jump on the Poly band wagon, even if very late.
Yeah. And IF it works they will for sure jump on board. IIRC NASA supported some fusor (multi grid) type experiments at MIT. But it was really cheap probably in the 10s of Ks.

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 2:59 am
by DeltaV
GIThruster wrote:Where is the quote above from?
From the admittedly skimpy Aviation Week and Space Technology article I linked to.