Aurora = Cold Fusion?
Great news! Fusion power is only 20 years away!
NASA is launching this constellation of four satellites later this year to record magnetic reconnection events.
IMHO, pouring vast amounts of money into hot fusion is a waste of resources. Cold fusion has already been demonstrated hundreds if not thousands of times.
No need, according now-zotted FReeper kevmo, cold fusion has been solved.
This reminds me of cavitation. Wasn’t it also considered for fusion?
“secret... magnetic reconnection”
The process in T shock tubes which produced dense million degree plasmas for the Naval Research Laboatories in 1958. And was well publicized at the time.
It is a likely path, though shock tubes aren’t a good geometry.
Here is a fusion company out of Vancouver. Its called General Fusion. The founder Michel Laberge. Its been at work since 2002. The guy has done a presentation at a TED conference there. The company has about 60 million worth of funding (including funding from the canadian government, and a big staff that’s currently building a fusion machine.) Does anyone understand fusion designs well enough to know whether this design is within the design margins of what might be a successful fusion machine. Does anyone understand fusion well enough to know whether the speaker at the TED conference knows what he’s talking about—even if you might disagree with him.
https://www.ted.com/speakers/michel_laberge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/technology-news/general-fusion-new-ceo-nathan-gilliland/
http://recode.net/2014/03/18/the-future-may-be-getting-close-to-reality-in-vancouver-with-d-wave-and-general-fusion/