NationStates Jolt Archive

Let's face it people, oil won't last forever and wind/wave/solar power is decades from being truly useful. So, what to do? Well, those crazy russians have an idea. If only they could get a fusion reactor working on this stuff...

http://www.space.com/news/ap_060126_russia_moon.html

I think you've got the wrong link there, that one seems to be about the moon and not energy, but I'll make a joke anyway

OPEC: "damn russians, tryna solve energy problems; why I aughta...."

Here's a temporary solution:
Put engine efficiency above fossil-fuel-company profits

That surprises me because creating the fusion of helium is much harder (requires much higher pressures and temperatures) than the one of hydrogen, and we still don't know how to create hydrogen fusion industrially (that's what the ITER is all about: finding if we can do it...).

For very long term future, maybe. But for a more closer future, hydrogen fusion seems much more realistic to me.

But I'm not a nuclear physiscts, even if he did scientific studies. So if a nuclear physisct is among us and could explain if there is a reason to use helium, I'm interested !

I like what the machines did in the matrix.
That's how we should get energy!

http://www.space.com/news/ap_060126_russia_moon.html

"but the government hasn't allocated any funds yet"

Until we get to hydrogen and fusion as our energy sources we need to rely a little more on nuclear and TDP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization)

I think you've got the wrong link there, that one seems to be about the moon and not energy, but I'll make a joke anyway

OPEC: "damn russians, tryna solve energy problems; why I aughta...."

[hand to face] The point, without even having to read it, is that 8 inches below the lunar surface you have the biggest locally available reservoir of helium-3 (tritium) around. Tritium/3H is potentially optimal for use as a fusion fuel.

The thing to do is send self-replicating machines to the Moon. They'll mine the stuff, (all you really need is to scrape and scoop) feed it into fusion reactors, and transmit the power down to Earth via microwave beams. It bypasses the problem of getting all that 3H down to Earth physically, which could be problematic and definitely cumbersome.

Of course, eventually we'll be getting oceans of low-cost power by dragging a magnetic cable anchored to a moon through the Jovian or Saturnian atmospheres, converting the planet's kinetic energy into electrical energy, and from orbital thermovoltaic arrays around the solar poles.

Why don't we fund Bio-Oil? Apparently they made crude oil (has the same component as organic oil), made out of vegitables and saw dust. I really would look into that. It could replace oil in our car, but we wouldn't have to replace the engine! It can be refinded into gasoline etc.