Fusion rockets ho!

[Lord Apocalypse]

Spotted this earlier tonight on yahoo. Looks like NASA is looking into something other than Ion propulsion for system exploration. Anyone up for a quick (30 day) jaunt to mars??

Couple this (since Federation ships were fusion powered anyway) and a working warp drive and youve got NCC-1701 ready to explore the galaxy The only thing missing is the matter-antimatter setup, and that could well be possible in the next 50 years.

Are transporters missing? No, not really. There was an article posted a few years back (somewhere, maybe yahoo) that scientist were able to transport light from one location to another.

And last techno marvel, how about solar collection farms in orbit collecting an unlimited amount of energy from the sun and beaming it down to various relay stations on earth. Yet another tech in the works

Now if only they can get sky farms and Atificial Trees up and running... Oh well, to dream a dream

[Rman Virgil]

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This got me to wondering about the present feasibility of fusion reactors. How much more can you get out than you put in, basically.

As of April 2013:

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/energy-and ... 28.article

I should integrate into the expanded timeline for Sunday.... Yet again something entirely absent the canonical timeline and backstory, of fundamental global impact.

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[Goth Zagog-Thou]

They are very VERY close to getting Fusion working. I'd say three to five years, if not before.

Several different approaches to FTL travel are being researched currently by very talented people around the world, but unless some sort of "Concorde Moment" type of breakthrough happens I really don't think we'll see FTL within our lifetimes. Note that I don't say "propulsion", but travel -- since even "Warp Drive" didn't exceed the speed of light.

The jury is still out on what exactly the speed of light really is and whether it is the maximum speed that can be attained according to the laws of physics.

Interesting stuff indeed.

[Lord Apocalypse]

I forget how the warp drive or "Alcubierre Drive" works, but it could get us to our nearest star in a matter of months if memory serves. Its fatal flaw? Energy consumption is insane at this point...

As far as fusion.. are you referring to experimental or commercial fusion reactors? As far as commercial designs go... my guess is at least 10 years before they have a viable commercial design ready.

[Goth Zagog-Thou]

Yep, experimental.

[Rman Virgil]

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The Nuclear Power prognostications for the expanded timeline are taking thier lead from the following 2 recent articles that cover the ground comprehensively, I think:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... 8-approved

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/global- ... ctor/10646

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[Lord Apocalypse]

I wonder if anything will ever come of the zero-point energy research

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... t-research

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy

but then there's this.. which so far I have found some of its articles to be laughable. http://science.howstuffworks.com/enviro ... energy.htm

At least I know one tech used in the Stargate Tv series wasn't a complete sci-fantasy Beyond rail guns anyway.