Lockheed Martin / Skunk Works say they will have a truck sized fusion reactor in 10y

[Deleted]

Here's an article:

http://io9.com/lockheed-says-itll-ha...-in-1646724586

What do you think? There have been lots of people and companies claiming to be close to fusion reactors for a while now, none of them have ever come through. Lockheed is pretty reputable, and anything that comes out of the skunk works is bound to be really cool, but is this going to be just another dead end, or will it be the answer to the world's energy problems?

Edit: Didn't see there was already an open thread on this. Please close

[Deleted]

Brought to you by the makers of the F-35, the worlds biggest money sink.

[Independent voter]

"Lockheed Martin / Skunk Works say they will have a truck sized fusion reactor in 10y "

That's such an American thing to say. From what I've read, the big problem is the reactor destroys itself. If they come up with a way to prevent that then maybe.

[Deleted]

Never heard of either... One sounds like a 1930s gangster the other a PRO DRUGS campaign slogan

[Bristae]

Never heard of either... One sounds like a 1930s gangster the other a PRO DRUGS campaign slogan

Never heard of Lockheed Martin??? Have you been living under a rock....... oh wait... you are in England.... Nevermind.. cheerio :P

[Deleted]

Never heard of Lockheed Martin??? Have you been living under a rock....... oh wait... you are in England.... Nevermind.. cheerio :P

Even in england, we've heard of them. They make some of the most famous ways to spend your taxes in history.

[Kalis]

It's probably best to wait until they've built the prototype before getting too excited.

[Reeve]

Never heard of either... One sounds like a 1930s gangster the other a PRO DRUGS campaign slogan

They're the guys who made this:



And this:



And this:



And this:



And this:



Yeah, they go overbudget a lot, but they tend to get shit done, and frankly if they can pull this off, I don't care how overbudget it turns out to be.

[Deleted]

I thought the X-MEN built em

[Thekri]

They also built the U-2, the P-38 lightning, and damn near invented the current generation of UAVs (Drones). They have completely revolutionized air warfare half a dozen times now, with Ultra-long range fighters, then supersonic jets (The F-104 was the first supersonic fighter with a practical range, IE not just an interceptor), Ultra-High Altitude (U-2, it changed the soviets entire Air-defense network), The Blackbird, then Stealth (Almost entirely a skunkworks monopoly for 20 years), they also bought the General Dynamics Aircraft team that developed much of current aircraft computer control technology for the F-16, the first aircraft that flew using primarily computers to stay in the air, and so forth.

So the bottom line, if Skunkworks claim something big, there is a damn good chance they are going to pull it off. Granted it isn't 100%, and they aren't cheap, and they sure as hell aren't punctual, but they do get some incredible results, and if they think they can make a practical fusion reactor it is worth getting a little excited.

[Deleted]

They also built the U-2, the P-38 lightning, and damn near invented the current generation of UAVs (Drones). They have completely revolutionized air warfare half a dozen times now, with Ultra-long range fighters, then supersonic jets (The F-104 was the first supersonic fighter with a practical range, IE not just an interceptor), Ultra-High Altitude (U-2, it changed the soviets entire Air-defense network), The Blackbird, then Stealth (Almost entirely a skunkworks monopoly for 20 years), they also bought the General Dynamics Aircraft team that developed much of current aircraft computer control technology for the F-16, the first aircraft that flew using primarily computers to stay in the air, and so forth.

So the bottom line, if Skunkworks claim something big, there is a damn good chance they are going to pull it off. Granted it isn't 100%, and they aren't cheap, and they sure as hell aren't punctual, but they do get some incredible results, and if they think they can make a practical fusion reactor it is worth getting a little excited.

Oh there is no doubt that they can do what they promised, but it will takes 3 times longer than predicted and cost 5 times more.

[Annoying]

They're the guys who made this:

http://www.qianyan001.com/img1/image...0_78963200.jpg

Wait, is that a picture of the famous leaking fuel? The SR-71 leaked fuel until at a certain airspeed or altitude.

[Deleted]

Oh there is no doubt that they can do what they promised, but it will takes 3 times longer than predicted and cost 5 times more.

When it comes to things like solving the world's energy problems etc, like the big earth shattering things that our planet needs, any cost is essentially monopoly money. It doesn't matter at all.

It's like if you developed a system to get unlimited free, clean drinking water to any location on the planet at any time, or like... FTL travel or something... you can attach any price tag to the development of such a thing and it's totally irrelevant.

[Reeve]

Wait, is that a picture of the famous leaking fuel? The SR-71 leaked fuel until at a certain airspeed or altitude.

Yeah, apparently they had to build it very loosely because it heated up so much during flight at speed that the panels would break if they made them fit properly when at room temperature.

[Deleted]

When it's stationary - in a bunker, no?