Lockheed Martin has made a breakthrough with fusion energy!

http://www.reuters.com/article...dUSKCN0I41EM20141015

No, we don't have fusion power. We have a press release from a company with a past of overhyped and overbudget projects, and "initial work" that "demonstrated the feasibility" of building such a reactor. Purely theoretical at this point, and most of the scientific community is rightfully skeptical until they put forth scientific data on how this was accomplished.

While I agree it's still a long way out,  the Skunk Works does not have a reputation for over-hype.  They have a reputation for the exact opposite, under-hype, putting things like the Stealth Fighter and the SR-71 into service with little advance knowledge (there were rumors of a Stealth Fighter, but everyone from Tom Clancy to the Revel model company had absolutely no clue about what it would look like!).  And they keep the details of a lot of things pretty hush hush.

In fact, announcing a 10 year project in advance is very odd for them.

Revel's most inaccurate model kit ever:

http://www.amazon.com/Revell-U...ighter/dp/B0002HYZ48

But don't expect them to release details.  They have a reputation for not doing that.  Not even to the government.  During the Stealth Fighter development their security was so tight it even hid their work from the government.  If they were bent on world domination they would be the stuff of comic books and 007 movies.

Yeah, those are also the folks behind the overhyped, overbudgeted and wasteful F22, F35 and Sea Shadow projects. For the moment this is nothing more than some promising lab work and a publicity stunt.

Yes military nerds unite!

You read.  You decide.

http://www.extremetech.com/ext...nergy-density-of-gas

saying you can build a prototype in a year seems like a bit more than a publicity stunt.  If it is just a stunt, it's a really bad one if they can't back it up.  And even counting the F-22/F-35, they have a lot more successes under their belts than failures.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what comes of it.

Sea Shadow existed for a decade before it was public knowledge.

Overhyped?

They have a proven track record of pushing science and technology beyond the state of the art.

No one ever said that was cheap or easy, but they do it.

For the F-22 and F-35, you have Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works confused with massive multi-corporation government organized coalitions designed to distribute contracts as widely as possible across as many politician's districts as possible.

The Skunk Works is a very special unit within Lockheed.  It is their breakthrough tech lab.

As far as breakthrough tech labs go, they are probably about typical for cost-efficiency, if not better.

Yeah, Skunk Works is only top line stuff.  Don't confuse production line things with Skunk Works designs.  You usually only see SW stuff years after it's finished.  In fact this is probably the first time they released something before it was done.

I never said it was Skunk works doing the overhyping. That's the fault of the news media and publications like Popular Science/Popular Mechanics.

And you don't think this fusion reactor will have production and further design split up and used as a means to bilk taxpayers out of billions before it's finally viable (if ever)? Because this is definitely the sort of intense project that only the US government could possibly fund, and that's not a simple, easy or efficient process.

I'm excited as anyone for the prospect of an energy revolution, but not based on a press release, a silly corporate video with bad dubstep, and not from a company and an industry plagued by corruption and cost over-runs.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the user at 19:36, Fri 17 Oct 2014.

In reply to Mustard Tiger (msg # 10):

I'm sure it's going to cost a bundle.  And there'll be problems, cost overruns, etc.

The point is it can be done.  One it's proven it can be done, everyone can get in on it.  You get everyone else in on it, someone is going to be able to do it cheaper.

Fusion research has been stalled at pretty much the same point since the mid 80's.  There have been minor advances, but no major breakthrough has really been accomplished.  All the research reactors still suffer from the issue the did back then, unsustainablity and needing more power than they put out.

I'll believe it when it fuels my flying DeLorean.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:18, Fri 17 Oct 2014.

We don't have fusion power. Not in the way that matters, but you know this. Appreciate your enthusiasm, though.

We shall see. It's still a finite energy source. (So is solar, but I'm unlikely to live long enough to (not) see the sun wink out.)

If LM and SW is just now inventing Fusion Power you can be sure that they've already been using it at Groom Lake for a decade or 2.

I thought this post was actually going to be about the Fuzion RPG.

Ok thought this was about dragon Ball z. As far as Lockheed goes at doing something let me give you a quote from an actual Lockheed engineer, not me mind you I'm just quoting.

Close enough for government work.

that quote is a common saying in all government and military jobs in the US.

In reply to gladiusdei (msg # 18):

Situation Normal: FUBAR

I think what you are trying to say is SNAFU. Situation normal, all fudged up.
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 06:16, Sun 19 Oct 2014.

In reply to TinyTim (msg # 20):

That too.

Just for fun I looked up the profile of the guy at the Skunkworks behind this.

Dr Thomas McGuire, did his doctorate research in fusion engineering at MIT.  He's 37, not too old to have lost that creative drive of youth.

Regardless of anyone's opinions on how "real" this is, let's face it, unless he's on RPOL he knows more about the subject of Fusion reactors than all of Rpol put together.

3 months after he finished his doctorate, he was hired by Lockheed, in 2007.

In a position like that, I doubt he got his doctorate, said "great!" and simply started submitting resumes to corporations.  Lockheed would have had their eye on him for years.  His hiring would have been a "done deal" for a long time, likely just waiting on his doctorate.

So Lockheed snatched up a top MIT fusion scientist as soon as he was available, and has had him under their wing for 7 years.  And Skunk Works never mentioned this.

Whether it is true or not, if anyone in the world can build this thing, he can.

Good luck, Dr. McGuire.

We're disputing fusion power?

I'm pretty sure that the Ford corporation, built on their research into novas, has been producing fusion for years ...

In reply to kouk (msg # 23):

Good one!