San Francisco Chronicle: The National Nuclear Security Administration in charge of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has requested extended funding from the US Congress. The National Ignition Facility at LLNL originally had a deadline for the end of this year to achieve “ignition,” or the successful implosion of hydrogen fuel resulting in fusion. After three years of experiments, that goal has not been achieved, and the NNSA is asking for funding for another three years. How close the facility is to success is a matter of some debate, and the cost to date of the facility of more than $5 billion makes many members of Congress skeptical about the likelihood of future success. NIF’s overall goal is to attempt to re-create the effect of hydrogen bombs in a controlled way so that the effects of the aging of the US nuclear stockpile can be determined.
Physics Today News Picks
Written and selected by Physics Today staff.
Hi Folks;
Nuclear fusion research should be one of the primary low energy research priorities because nuclear energy can pave our way to the stars in future exo-colonizations and exploration.
I described numerous ways nuclear fusion can be used to power mildly to extremely relativistic spacecraft in my two published books, and soon to be published third and fourth books on the subject of relativistic rockets.
As the velocity of light is approach, the effective velocity of the spacecraft with respect to the background approaches infinity light-years per second as an absolute current physics paradigm limit and permits infinite forward time travel for the crew.
In reality, it is hard to conceive of extreme gamma factors as ever becomming feasible, but the effort to climb ever higher on the gamma factor ladder can provide a physically eternal scope of engineering and applied physics challenges and many purely theoretical problems as well to be solved..
My first published title is:
Call Of The Cosmic Wild: Relativistic Rockets For The New Millennium.
This hopefully Bad Boy is available at Amazon.com as a paper back and Kindle Edition at:
The book is also available as a paper back and NOOK Edition from Barnes and Noble.
Or you can purchase the book at Outskirts Press as a paper back or as an e-book.
My second published title is:
The Galactic Explorer: Advanced Concepts In Relativistic Rocket Flight.
This book is available at Amazon.com as a Kindle Edition and will be available as a color paper back at Amazon.com in about two weeks and eventually as a hard back color edition.
Meanwhile, I am working on the Expanded Edition of Call Of The Cosmic Wild, as well as a fourth book on relativistic rockets which goes into some totally extreme concepts.
The first book includes a relatively easy mathematical and visionary treatment of the subject of interstellar travel. The second book is mathematically moderately advanced and proceedurally very advanced.
I am not simply trying to sell my books as much as I am interested in promoting an awareness of the huge bold possibilities for nuclear fusion for advancing the cause and scope of humanity.
Pingback: US government sets plan for National Ignition Facility - Physics Today News Picks