Lockheed Martin Skunkworks Announces Fusion Break Through

news.yahoo.com...

In a statement, the company, the Pentagon's largest supplier, said it would build and test a compact fusion reactor in less than a year, and build a prototype in five years.

So the timeline for demonstration is less than a year and thier timeline for a full commercial ready prototype is now 5 years instead of ten. Full commercialization is now just ten years away.

Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters.

that means town sized reactors can be air-mobiled anywhere in the world in any terrain. also it means current heavy lift launch carriers are capable of putting one of these into space for a space station, moon, mars or any other rocky bodied moon or worldlet colony or a large spaceship assembled in orbit.


also a technology reveiw article on the same public information release from LM.

www.technologyreview.com...



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Well now, that escalated rather quickly! S+F for the find!

S & F!

I wonder if they'll be using this for the Mars mission!?

a reply to: stormbringer1701

That's a breakthrough!

When do they start work on the war machines? You thought it was going to feed the hungry? LOL

Didn't the rapidly falling price of oil pretty much imply this was the case. Chances are, at least, China and Russia have something similar or even exactly like it.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

Gundams!

a reply to: stormbringer1701

I read a bit of the skeptical commentary following their October, 2014 statements and I'm not going to get too excited just yet. However, if they pull it off, it would be nearly impossible to overstate how big of a deal this is.

a reply to: stormbringer1701

Good #!

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: stormbringer1701

That's a breakthrough!

When do they start work on the war machines? You thought it was going to feed the hungry? LOL

That's the only reason we are seeing it.

Cause, we must have a new one that will fit in your wallet.

a reply to: stormbringer1701

This news is ancient. I'm surprised someone hasn't linked to the 3 or 4 existing threads from 3 months ago.

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: stormbringer1701

That's a breakthrough!

When do they start work on the war machines? You thought it was going to feed the hungry? LOL

the first war uses of this will be for propulsion, to power defensive lasers to provide counter RAM defense of important installations or capitals or C3I nodes. Second will be in the naval fleets to provide power for counter RAM and to power rail gun artillery.

the end effect in terms of offensive capability is not much more drastic than existing weapons and unless the space treaty is annulled or violated the war potential for this is hard pressed to outweigh the peaceful usage.

what this does do that is new is provide plentiful power and all that enables to remote locations, locations effected by disasters, greatly reduce dependence on hydrocarbons, and open all of the solar system and beyond to rapid and safe exploration, and exploitation.

originally posted by: SpongeBeard
a reply to: stormbringer1701

This news is ancient. I'm surprised someone hasn't linked to the 3 or 4 existing threads from 3 months ago.

no; this is new. it is a press release from LM which generated new news articles in the last few days. it also moves up the timeline from those older articles you speak of.

EDIT: well just relooked. it dates from october. so it is older than i thought. but it still means they have a breakthrough and they are moving up the timeline

a reply to: stormbringer1701

www.lockheedmartin.com...


here is their page for compact fusion

there is a bright side to this being october news: october, november, december, january, February... SEVEN MONTHS TO GO!

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: stormbringer1701

I read a bit of the skeptical commentary following their October, 2014 statements and I'm not going to get too excited just yet. However, if they pull it off, it would be nearly impossible to overstate how big of a deal this is.

well there is a lot of motion in the small fusion efforts. a lot of smoke as it were. several of them besides LM think that they have it licked and break even is simply a matter of scaling. of course that probably does not apply to PB fusion schemes. i don't know. it may. but it seems to me PB fusion is another creature altogether.

The team acknowledges that the project is in its earliest stages, and many key challenges remain before a viable prototype can be built. However, McGuire expects swift progress. The Skunk Works mind-set and “the pace that people work at here is ridiculously fast,” he says. “We would like to get to a prototype in five generations. If we can meet our plan of doing a design-build-test generation every year, that will put us at about five years, and we’ve already shown we can do that in the lab.” The prototype would demonstrate ignition conditions and the ability to run for upward of 10 sec. in a steady state after the injectors, which will be used to ignite the plasma, are turned off. “So it wouldn’t be at full power, like a working concept reactor, but basically just showing that all the physics works,” McGuire says.

wait does that mean the prototype will be built in 5 years or 5 generations?(definitions vary for the term generation but anywhere between 27.5-25 years seems to be the general consensus in UK and usa) Or are they talking about generations of technology and not as a measurement of time?

aviationweek.com... forgot to add link to above quote

a reply to: stormbringer1701

Like everything else...I bet they've already got it up and running...and in 5 years...they'll say "We have the prototype now!"

And all along they were already using it for whatever for the 5 years.

There are previous threads on the announcement.

The truth is that they made the announcement to drum up collaboration from a few other key groups along with funding needed. There are a couple key issues outstanding that haven't been solved.

Exciting stuff thou...that's for sure! And a real group behind the effort instead of some crank in a garage.

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: stormbringer1701

Like everything else...I bet they've already got it up and running...and in 5 years...they'll say "We have the prototype now!"

And all along they were already using it for whatever for the 5 years.

all i can say is their schedule isn't slipping so far. and when they do revise their time line they so far have shortened it. Thats refreshing after 50 years of it "just being 50 years away."

originally posted by: whyamIhere

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: stormbringer1701

That's a breakthrough!

When do they start work on the war machines? You thought it was going to feed the hungry? LOL

That's the only reason we are seeing it.

Cause, we must have a new one that will fit in your wallet.

I wish! but in reality problems of scaling seem to limit the minimal size for a working reactor to about a meter an a half cube for polywell designs. if it works.