Fusion: not in ten years, but now...

[zapkitty]

Looks like we'll have controlled fusion power generation proof-of-concept by the end of next month, that's April 2010, with a 100 megawatt operational reactor to follow by April 2011 and that's apparently already ahead of schedule...

Yep, it's the Return of the Son of the Bride of Polywell and it looks like it is indeed capable of aneutronic operation fusing protons with boron 11 and that means vast reductions in required shielding and radiation handling measures and it also means direct conversion to electrical power with existing technology... with equally vast reductions in the weight of auxiliary power and cooling gear.

...

.... has anyone thought about what that will do to game balance if the aliens attack 70+ years after we have such sources of fusion power?

Ground defenses blasting UFOs out of the exosphere with directed energy weapons at game start because the mooks were mistaken for missiles... naval vessels mounting railgun and directed energy weapons powered by multi-gigawatt reactors... human combat aircraft faster than UFOs and mounting energy weapons as well... irate human spacecraft chasing UFOs offworld as far as Mars at 450 kps... and not needing to refuel... human ships from Mars moving in to cut off the retreating alien ships...

... and those are very conservative estimates for human abilities at the start of the game because these things are first up in the R&D pipeline NOW and will be among the first fruits of fusion power.

It ain't fair, but it's there... I seriously wonder how we'll handle the changes.

I knew the future had caught up with the game already in some respects, but I'd not thought through what the recent developments in fusion would actually do to the game balance.

With antimatter power sources the alien ships would still outpower human ships and especially human aircraft... but not to the degree needed for the game storyline. Ground and naval facilities, not having to be flightweight, would be even more on a par with the alien capabilities as they are currently envisioned .

... oh yeah... the arguments against human mass production of antimatter also go out the window but it just wouldn't be needed for ordinary civilian purposes. Only for interstellar ship research... and military uses...

... whee! 

[Jeep-Eep]

Er... where did you hear this?

[zapkitty]

Er... where did you hear this?

The usual suspects, talk-polywell.org and to a lesser extent emc2fusion's own website.

Note: I wasn't talking net power by next month (though would be be a wild possibility ) I was speaking of their Navy contract to have a WB8 built and running by 4/30/2010. The contract calls for minimal power generation at this stage... but that will be enough to prove scaling. Between now and next year there should be net power and also proof of pb11 fusion.  And by April of next year: 100MW.

But I believe things will get interesting before then....

[Jeep-Eep]

So we revise the dates a bit. Won't change the technology too much. Hell, that might have been what got them to move in. They could have been planning infiltration for some time. They just picked up the pace when we lit a fire under their arse-analogs, so to speak. Wanted to get the job done before we could pose a major threat.

[zapkitty]

That would work, but it'll make things interesting mapping the game world closer to ours without the benefit of an interregnum such as was supposed to follow the "Second Cold War".

Hmmm... Perhaps the SCW could start sooner, hit everyone harder, and stop sooner?

[Dj Variablo]

Hi there,

For al who are being curious abouth Fusion Power?

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

And LET THERE BE LIGHT...AMEN

Sinceraly,
Dj Variablo

[zapkitty]

Hi there,

For all who are being curious about Fusion Power?

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

The article is a good quick backgrounder on what fusion is but the project coverage is outdated as the article's project focus is on the multinational ITER effort... which ain't doing so well with net power recently being pushed back to 2019  and it's falling further behind with each successive report.

A variety of smaller projects seem headed for net power in the next year or two, including Focus Fusion and Polywell.

And LET THERE BE LIGHT...AMEN

Oh, if any of the aneutronic projects work there will be light... and heat... and an exceedingly warm welcome for alien interlopers who show up decades after net power is reached...

[homunculus]

oh, well, another reason to place the game in 1950.

[zapkitty]

oh, well, another reason to place the game in 1950.

Seems like I erred in the timing. Turns out that the 4/30/10 date was for delivery of the current polywell machine (WB-8), not delivery of the results. Testing should commence sometime thereafter... so while they seem to be adhering to the schedule in the Navy contracts we may not hear any testing news for some months.

Sorry

As for 50's... maybe the 70's?... that would still give room for Earth weapons to advance a bit during the game either along current lines or with alternate development possibilities.

The neatest thing, and the hardest to pull off, would be the current time... but in an alternate history that diverged from ours during the cold war... neat!

... Winter, put down that porcupine...

[homunculus]

sorry, i didn't mean to start a discussion about it in design forum, it was meant as a small remark related to the topic of this thread.
there might be reasons to put the game in 1950, like the ww2 weapon stereotypes from 1950 (i like those flamers and grenade launchers, etc), and now also lack of fusion power in 1950.
but that does not mean there are no reasons to keep the game in 2084.

and even if someone had something more to say about it, and felt like there should be more discussion about it, maybe that should take place in some other forum section (like 'discussion'), and certainly in some other thread.

[Winter]

... Winter, put down that porcupine...

This thing is going RIGHT IN YOUR FACE.

Regards,
Winter