Talk-Polywell.org

It's possible that if this technology works, but falls short of its hoped-for potential, it could be useful as a space drive but not as a launch engine. But if that happens, it will also be useless for hovering... Not really, even a good hover engine has plenty of uses, think ground-based hover veh...

Yeah, but once the engines SHUT OFF, gravity takes over. I'm not talking about stability in flight; I'm talking about passive landing stability. Even a sphere has this problem. If one of the legs breaks, well... spheres roll. A helicopter also has a problem if the engines decide to fail. Sure, you ...

Doesn't Heim drive have inherent light-bending visual cues? If so, I haven't heard of it. What Heim drive mechanism would cause it? Alcubierre's does. Heim's doesn't. Nor have I heard of light bending objects (UFOs) being observed. How would an observer in the field detect light bending using eyeba...

Hey folks, rather than bitching at EMC2 about a lack of data, how bout pushing universities to provide a $M or two and make their own Polywell? That data would be freely available. After all, the basic patent has run out. Several universities could compete and try different things and the science w...

Pure speculation: The acceleration is only on those objects in the B x V field. Since they are attached to the frame the "force" also accelerates the frame. Assuming humans in the frame they get accelerated as well. A rocket engine with no exhaust. .... However .... (semi-sci-fi-mode here): If we w...

Not enough energy for that. Well, that DOES pretty much depend on the amount of traffic running over a line, right? Suppose a train passes over a specific section of track every 15 minutes, and takes about 45 seconds to pass (counting passenger trains here), that would mean the remaining 57 minutes...

how high are you willing to build this solar canopy? semi's are big, but there are even taller 'chines I've seen driving sometimes. One inch higher than the lowest overpass or tunnel on that stretch, I suppose. Would work for railway lines as well, those might even be easier to install as most rail...

93143 wrote:It is encouraging to note that, as Aero points out, the word "fusion" is now in the name. On the other hand, "energy" is not...

Maybe that means they want to run WB-8 (or possibly WB8.1) at break-even, to lay the groundwork for WB-100?

I wonder what the project name for WB-100 will be...

Well, i suppose if you have a barrier that requires greater than x eV to penetrate, your crazy particles of doom which are most likely far more energized than x eV should be able to get through, and atmosphere will be blocked out, but how do you get a barrier that isn't solid matter block neutral c...

Side reactions producing slow neutrons mitigate some shielding, about a meter of water shell plus an inch or so of boron10, which would bring the size and weight up beyond automobile capacity. A large truck, or ship or plane could manage it. But battery tech is likely to trump on-board generators f...

As far as water vapor's greenhouse effect I believe it is stronger than CO2 in both effect per molecule (?) and, by far, in quantity. At least water vapor condenses eventually, and when it does if provides a great reflector for incoming solar energy. Does water vapor help or hurt. They can't even d...

Thers has been some debate weather the mW in the contract was a misprint and should have been MW. I'm sure it was not Megawatt if an actual test article is intended instead of just a proposed design. A 100 milliwatt steady state test reactor would be big news. The reliability of the results would b...

Personally, I'd like to see them *both* hit the grid. Even if DPF weren't able to produce 100MW in a single unit, I'd be more than happy if they were to build a 1MW one. Hell, I'll buy a 100kW generator and chuck it under the hood of my car! If DPF even works on smaller scale power devices, it certa...

mrflora wrote:Burt Rutan also believes that aliens built the pyramids.

Does he have an NDA from Stargate Command somewhere in a safe in his office, or what?

Water, Power, Fuel. Instant civilization? That pretty much holds in a lot of situations. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas (albeit not as powerful as CO2), and basic needs for civlization can be created out of water and some support materials which may be found on-site. Colonizing Mars and Europa wou...