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2013.12 China prepare for moon landing, 3 months moon travel ready

Damn nice.

I saw a movie called 'oblivion' and they referred to this nuclear fusion technology.

How long before this technology is actually used?

Work in parallel:

Fusion reactor achieves tenfold increase in plasma confinement time

Experimental design improved heat dissipation, reducing damage to reactor walls.

by Matthew Francis - Nov 19 2013, 3:30am +0800

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The interior of the donut-shaped Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Hydrogen plasma is confined in this chamber by strong magnetic fields, where it fuses into heavier nuclei. Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Institute of Science

The promise of fusion is immense. Its fuel is hydrogen plasma, made from the most abundant atom in the Universe, and the major byproduct is helium, an inert gas. In this era with the threat of climate change, clean alternative sources of energy are more necessary than ever. However, even after decades of research and enormous investments of money, scientists haven't succeeded in producing a working nuclear fusion plant. Nevertheless, many feel the potential payoff is worth continued investment.

For that reason, work is proceeding apace on the next generation of fusion reactors. Researchers at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in Hefei, China, achieved a significant improvement in its confinement time and the density of the plasma it held. This step is necessary to maintain the appropriate conditions for fusion as well as to reduce the damage the hot plasma causes to the reactor walls. As described by J. Li and colleagues, the latest run at EAST achieved a plasma pulse lasting over 30 seconds, a record achievement that simultaneously demonstrated improvements in heat dispersal.

Nuclear fusion requires overcoming the electric repulsion between positively charged nuclei until the strong nuclear force exerts itself. In practice, that requires very high temperatures, which ensure that the nuclei are moving fast enough to collide rather than repel each other. While fusion is relatively easy on a small scale, researchers have yet to produce a reliable chain reaction that safely yields more energy than is required to sustain it.

Ultimately the problem is one of plasma confinement: holding the nuclei within a limited space at sufficiently high temperature. (Plasma is a gas consisting of free electrons and nuclei; at cooler temperatures, these particles recombine to make neutral atoms, another reason to keep things hot.) Hot gas expands rapidly, so energy is required to force the plasma back together.

Fusion requires temperatures greater than 15 million degrees Celsius; many reactors top 100 million degrees. That's hot enough to melt anything solid, so confinement requires something other than a wall. Stars have a natural plasma confinement system in the form of gravity: their large mass ensures high pressure and temperature in the core. But that's obviously impractical for Earth-bound scientists.

Magnetic confinement is one possible solution, and the one used by the donut-shaped reactors known as tokamaks. (Other types of reactors and confinement exist as well.) Electrically charged particles like deuterium nuclei can be steered by magnetic fields, so sufficiently strong fields can both heat and contain plasma. As its name suggests, EAST utilizes superconducting magnets to increase the force it can exert, a method also practiced to contain the protons that circulate at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

When plasma is magnetically confined and heated beyond a certain limit, it transitions to a high-confinement mode, or H-mode. In this mode, the plasma itself spontaneously generates an "edge" that partly prevents particles from escaping, and it throttles turbulence in the hot material. This more than doubles the time plasma can be confined. The present study achieved more than 30 seconds of a sustained H-mode pulse, an improvement of 10 to 20 times beyond anything achieved at other reactors. Thirty seconds may not sound like much until you realize this is plasma at more than 100 million degrees, more than five times the core temperature of the Sun.

Additionally, the authors described enhancements to the walls of the EAST reactor. When energetic particles collide with the atoms in the reactor chamber, they can create unwanted byproducts, which in turn may interfere with the operation of the equipment. For that reason, the improvements to EAST were designed to dissipate the heat efficiently and to remove the helium "ash" produced by the fusion reactions.

EAST can be thought of as a pathfinder for the larger International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), slated to begin operation in 2020 with full fusion power tests in 2028. However, thanks largely to budgetary cuts across science, the United States has withdrawn its financial contribution to ITER, which could delay the start further.

Nevertheless, these results are necessary but incremental steps toward reliable nuclear fusion power. A tenfold increase in plasma confinement time is a significant accomplishment, and it came with an improvement in heat dissipation. The slow state of progress may or may not yield ultimate results, but the promise of clean abundant power could be a bit closer to reality.

Nature Physics, 2013. DOI: 10.1038/nphys2795 (About DOIs).

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Reader comments 224

Fusion reactor achieves tenfold increase in plasma confinement time | Ars Technica
 
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Wow! That's great news! :tup: Where's it going to land? I wonder if they'll find any UFOs there like Armstrong did? But that was all censored, but not before a few parts of the transmission to CAPCOM were aired and picked up by a number of receivers. For example:

The government agencies policies of keeping U.F.O.s secret from the general public is well-known and has been well-documented in several books by famous astronomers like J. Allen Hynek (who investigated U.F.O.s for the U.S. Air Force), Major Donald Keyhoe, Timothy Good (in his book Above Top Secret), and many other professionals. One unquestionably absolute expert is Christopher Kraft, who was director of the N.A.S.A. tracking base in Houston during the Apollo Moon missions, when he revealed the following conversation “after” he left his work at N.A.S.A.:

- ASTRONAUTS NElL ARMSTRONG and BUZZ ALDRIN speaking from the Moon: “Those are giant things. No, no, no .... this is not an optical illusion. No one is going to believe this!”

- MISSION CONTROL (HOUSTON CENTER): “What...what...what? What the hell is happening? What’s wrong with you?”

- ASTRONAUTS: “They’re here under the surface.”

- MISSION CONTROL: “What’s there? Emission interrupted... interference control calling Apollo II.”

- ASTRONAUTS: “We saw some visitors. They were there for awhile, observing the instruments.”

- MISSION CONTROL: ”Repeat your last information.”

- ASTRONAUTS: “I say that there were other spaceships. They’re lined up on the other side of the crater.”

- MISSION CONTROL: “Repeat...repeat!”

- ASTRONAUTS: “Let us sound this orbita ..... In 625 to 5...automatic relay connected... My hands are shaking so badly I can’t do anything. Film it? God, if these damned cameras have picked up anything... what then?”

- MISSION CONTROL: “Have you picked up anything?”

- ASTRONAUTS: “I didn’t have any film at hand. Three shots of the saucers or whatever they were that were ruining the film.”

- MISSION CONTROL: “Control, control here. Are you on your way? Is the uproar with the U.F.O.s. over?

- ASTRONAUTS: “They’ve landed there. There they are and they are watching us.”

- MISSION CONTROL: “The mirrors, the mirrors...have you set them up?”

- ASTRONAUTS: “Yes, they’re in the right place. But whoever made those space ships surely can come tomorrow and remove them. Over and out.”


Well, will the Chinese encounter a similar situation and reveal the truth? I doubt it as it seems all space agencies - NASA, CSA, ISRO, ESA, JAXA, RSA are all in it together, bound by some secrecy clause.

Is it any wonder that ISRO has refused to put on the web the thousands of images of the Moon taken by Chandrayaan-1 which they promised to do before it was launched? Are there some things they want to hide? If not, then why the hesitation in making the images public?




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nice...but I question what do you want on the Moon? there is nothing to see. Besides it is very cold, there is no oxygen, no natural resources at all. Or do you want to prepare a zone for future Chinese tourists?
When plane was invented, people asked the same question.

I think human will enter and flourish in the universe, sooner or later. This is just pioneering work. Pity I cannot live long enough to see that day. It's better to birth some decades later.
 
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Fight for next energy revolution ==> Nuclear Fusion Energy. The Moon own millions ton of Helium-3 (100ton Helium-3 can provide a whole year of earth energy supply ! Pls google Helium-3).

Today discover the moon for our next generation or next next generation's energy supply. After earth oils dry rot, Nuclear Fusion Energy will be the SUPERSTAR in the future, and the Helium-3 on the Moon become some kind of trategic resource like today oil for country development.


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cool...but I wonder to whom belong the Moon and its resoures.
Can China fly to the planet and just take this stuff Helium-3 as yours? Or will you share it with your brothers and sisters in Vietnam?
 
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If i don't see it i don't listen to China promises anymore
 
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There is no aliens.

Humans are the only species on this universe.

There are aliens in this universe, other planets from other solar systems or galaxies can also produce the extraterrestrial life.

If these life forms have been evolved much earlier than us, then they would likely have much more advanced technology than us.
 
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cool...but I wonder to whom belong the Moon and its resoures.
Can China fly to the planet and just take this stuff Helium-3 as yours? Or will you share it with your brothers and sisters in Vietnam?
Like buying oils from Arab, if Nuclear Fusion Energy commercialized in the future, Vietnam can buy the nuclear fusion power plant from U.S, Russia and China. I think like today operating a nuclear power plant, above 3x countries also provide limited Helium-3 materials for ur nuclear fusion power plant.

I ever read currently only U.S, Russia and China developing their own Nuclear Fusion device (Europe ???), coz this new energy technology base on nuclear fusion(principle of the hydrogen bomb).

Dig Helium-3 on the moon just like dig oils in ur garden, of course the moon belongs to all human but the Helium-3 belong to who can take it and sell on the earth.

SPACE & NUCLEAR technology is the FUTURE
 
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Apart from US, did Russia send any rovers?

And if not, then China could be 2nd nation.
 
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cool...but I wonder to whom belong the Moon and its resoures.
Can China fly to the planet and just take this stuff Helium-3 as yours? Or will you share it with your brothers and sisters in Vietnam?
Brothers and sisters in Vietnam? mean vietnam? Now, Chinese are your brother?
Even give Helium-3 to you, you just can resell it.
Don't talking about who the moo belong to, that's too far from you vietnam.
 
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