A while back I linked to the Google video speech given by Robert Bussard regards his research into an avenue started by the UK scientist Doctor Philo Farnsworth.
Here is a good article in Defense News that explains it in layman's terms. It also explains why the project was terminated. The DOE tokamack project employs thousands of scientists and generates huge ammounts of research funding, all under the DOE umbrella. DOE is sure they can get their system to work in 20-30 years or so...so the idea that they would approve 200 million to kill their meal ticket is unlikely.
grrrrr.....
Here is Bussard's new research group, where he's trying to raise money to complete the research.
This could be the story of the century if it pans out.
If it doesn't, 200 million will have told us what doesn't work...and it's only 10 Dirskins anyway.
UPDATE: Heh, It's said that great minds think alike.....but sometimes, for reasons unclear, they think like me...
Jerry Pournelle is also looking at this, he links to this page which includes several documents that might be of interest.
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3 comments:
Fascinating that Bussard has come so close. Considering how much money DOE spends on things that will never produce usable power (like dark energy), a small investment in Bussard would be worthwhile.
I can't understand your inane fascination with crackpots in the field of physics. This is the the second one this week. Are you going to roll out a perpetuum mobile by Thursday? What is wrong with you, Ken?
Bussard is not a crackpot. He has been a respected scientist for many years.
He's taking another look at a line of research that was abandoned in the 1950s. He now has the bennefit of better sensors and computers and seems to have detected promising results. He continued the experiments until funding ran out and towards the end got very promising but inconclusive results.
He wants to pursue this line of research and feels that learning
if it works or not will cost far less than what we're already spending on Tokamak research...which has been 20 years away from results for nearly 50 years.
Given the potential pay-off, this seems like a much better investment than many public or private expenses. It may NOT work, but at this stage it looks promising.
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