Scientists to build Star on Earth

[Emperor Claudius Rome]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/04/28...dex.html?hpt=C1

This scares me. If we do make a star, what will happen when it burns out?

[Spyder]

Nooooooo! Have we learned nothing from Spider-man 2?

[Tereglith]

When it burns out it'll go "FZZT" and stop producing energy. There's a mass threshold which has to be reached before a star will go nova, and this'll be nowhere near that. Same reason LHC isn't going to produce planet eating black holes: it's too small to pose a threat (the Hawking radiation would destroy any LHC black holes before they could eat anything).

I hope that the thing will work. It would be truly revolutionary to have, as Doc Ock would say, "the power of the sun in the palm of our hands". A few of these reactors (which larger things of dueterium fuel, of course) could produce as much clean energy as all the world's turbines put together. It's all a matter of getting the reaction to produce enough energy to power the laser, plus a bit more, and then we'll basically have unlimited electricity with little to no effect on the environment as long as we can built more reactors.

[alienwar9]

"And, in those recent years, the project has fallen a year off schedule, the GAO says, with the expected completion date for the research now at the end of 2012" - My favorite part. I laughed so hard from this cause of its morbid ironic nature.

Oh end of the world, we do test thee

does sound really cool though. I would like to see a bit more of the place however

[prateek]

Nooooooo! Have we learned nothing from Spider-man 2?

Exactly....

Anyways, shouldn't they be paying off debts instead of this crap? We already have developments in alternative energy that we have to make.

[Corvus]

Anyways, shouldn't they be paying off debts instead of this crap? We already have developments in alternative energy that we have to make.

Now now, whatever happened to people's scientific spirit?

Besides, this has very practical applications. It's very clean, much cleaner than so called "biofuel." And it's certainly much safer than punching holes in the seafloor to get oil out of.

[Siegfried]

I heard about this a few weeks ago and it's great news!

(BTW, the Laser might by from the USA, but the concept is mostly from Australian research. The story conveniently forgets that fact.)

[Batbrick]

(Scientists plan to build Star on Earth)

Mwahaha, just as planned.....

Seriously though, sounds interesting, though I'm still bummed by the cutbacks on NASA's space plan. Unrelated? Probably, but this stuff should be done on the moon for added effect!

Batbrick Away!

[Shadows]

Exciting stuff, perhaps the gateway to the future, perhaps another dream, we shall have to see.

Anyways, shouldn't they be paying off debts instead of this crap? We already have developments in alternative energy that we have to make.

If this "crap" works, it could be harnessed to eradicate those debts fairly quickly with good planning.

[filip skywalker]

Sweet! They'd better make an Earth to the same scale as well...

Perhaps history do indeed repeat itself!

But what will happen once their Voyager probes accidently hits the power off button?

"And, in those recent years, the project has fallen a year off schedule, the GAO says, with the expected completion date for the research now at the end of 2012" - My favorite part. I laughed so hard from this cause of its morbid ironic nature.

Oh end of the world, we do test thee

Hahahaha!

[LuxorV]

Sounds interesting, and it's about time: they started talking about controlled nuclear fusion some 30-40 years ago!

Anyway, if we don't go boom (remember Human Torch's top heat in Fantastic Four involving Earth's atmosphere in a catastrophic burn-out? ), there should not be big problems: too low mass for a nova (not to say a supernova or a black hole or any such stellar sized fenomena), not much dangerous radiation apart for UVs (especially since it's automatically filtered by the dense atmoshere).

As far as I know, the main problem with this technology has always been related to the containment fields' stability (gravitational, magnetic and inertial).

LuxorV

[Ralph_S]

This project has been in the works since ta least 20 years. The 'star' is essentially just a tiny little pellet and the fusion reaction will be over in the blink of an eye. That's also the problem with this project: in order to turn it into a viable energy source, you'd need to be able to run it almost constantly rather than in just a flash and they are nowhere near that point.

Cheers,

Ralph

[ipwnlego]

(BTW, the Laser might by from the USA, but the concept is mostly from Australian research. The story conveniently forgets that fact.)

WOOO AUSTRALIA

how are they going to harness the energy??

[Tereglith]

how are they going to harness the energy??

The same we we harness all our heat energy - put a bunch of water on top, bring to a boil, and turbines attached to magnets surrounded by metal coils and voila! Electricity. It's pretty steampunk if you think about it. They should make the laser out of brass and copper and have it be run by automatons in tophats...

[Big Cam]

Hopefully this ends up to be more eventful than the worlds largest atom smasher.

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Nooooooo! Have we learned nothing from Spider-man 2?

That's funny! Maybe we just need more radioactive spiders. I'd love a little sun, it would help with lighting issues when I take pictures of my MOC's.

[not-in-use-anymore]

Hmmm.... At least we can melt the poles faster.

@Tereglith: I love it when people use automaton instead of robot, it sounds more steampunkish.

[Spyder]

Well, one of two things could happen, kind of like Einstein's theories for the atom bomb.

1. It could work

2. It could cause a chain reaction and kill everything alive.

Personally, I'd take #1, but as already mentioned, they'd have to run it continuously, and we don't have that kind of technology yet...

...as far as we know.

Maybe we just need more radioactive spiders.

I volunteer myself to get bitten!

Edited April 29, 2010 by Spyder