Space and Science BS Thread

Yeah, exactly. That's how I feel too. Got a soda stream I can borrow for some scientific experiments?

 

TW Secret Santa is right around the corner

 

Long day yesterday- missed out on:

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1437626352438374407?s=21

 

I have a tap in the kegerator for high test carbonated water, does that count?

 

Anyone see that they finally created a working circular 20 Tesla (the measurement, not another Elon stroke) magnet about a week ago? If they can get it to work consistently it'll make a working Fusion Tomak design feasible. That was the last piece of technology they needed to take the new design in France they're building from theory and blueprint to reality.

Honestly working Fusion power using Dueterium is way more important to humanity than who or how we get the the Moon or Mars. If they can get it working existing heavy water seperation technology can provide a billion years of humanities energy needs.

 

Link?

 

MIT ramps 10-ton magnet up to 20 tesla in proof of concept for commercial fusion -- ANS / Nuclear Newswire

Not sure how this didn't make more news lol. It's a big moment and MIT is sharing the technology as part of a bunch of agreements on magnetic technology for fusion power.

For reference, a 20 T electromagnet is strong enough to lift "403 Boeing 747s" if they were made of iron lol.

 

https://twitter.com/inspiration4x/status/1437786516533698577?s=20

 

holy shit
“The difference in terms of energy consumption is rather stunning: That [old design] magnet, because it was a normal copper conducting magnet, consumed approximately 200 million watts of energy. To produce the confining magnetic field, this magnet was around 30 watts.” That decrease—a factor of around 10 million—"makes it obvious why going to a high-field superconducting device or magnet now brings into bear net energy from fusion,” Whyte said.”

 

This is amazing and legit makes me more excited that SpaceX.

 

Just to clarify, we're talking about magnetic containment for fusion generation, like is basically only in scifi right now?

 

"...hope will produce net energy in a compact tokamak device called SPARC in 2025, on track for commercial fusion energy in the early 2030s."
That's pretty crazy. It will be very interesting to see what this changes within our lifetimes - just the impact to current energy markets alone is mind boggling.

 

Yes. Viable low power magnetic confinement is now possible. We have the technology. We don't have some other things, but this was a huge technical hurdle.

 

Yep. Plasma for fusion is rediculously hot and will just melt through materials. The best hope for containing it is to hold it in a donut shaped magnetic field. But making that magnetic field with normal magnetics is insanely power hungry. A magnet like this is so much more efficient that it won’t take more power to run the containment than the plant produces. That’s HUGE.

 

One thing I found myself wondering is how they will produce the plasma?

 

So, basically it might produce enough power to form a warp bubble?

 

Only if we reconfigure the main deflector

 

Do we have enough dilithium crystals for that?

 

I am fresh out. Gave my last set to some guy mumbling about a roadrunner

 

Inject the correct mixture, ionized, just inside the magnetic field and it'll head to the center of the field. If the field is strong enough the compression effect of the magnetic field will provide the heat and pressure to create the plasma which should react to create energy and Helium.

I believe Caltech has a working injection mechanism. I'd have to do some digging.