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Environment & Energy

hunter

(39,012 posts)

2. My dad's best friend was an engineer working on ion engines and plasma injectors.

Reply to NotASurfer (Reply #1)

Sat Jun 29, 2024, 12:38 PM

Jun 2024

I remember visiting the lab he worked in as a teenager, peering through the thick leaded glass portals of the large vacuum chambers they tested these in and seeing the eerie glow of a plasma stream.

The plasma injectors he was building were for some fusion experiment.

That was fifty years ago.

The ion engines became a practical tool for station-keeping on commercial and military satellites.

Practical fusion is still a dream.

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Will We Ever Get Fusion Power? [View all] hunter Jun 2024 OP

It's been estimated as being 50 years down the road since before I was born NotASurfer Jun 2024 #1

My dad's best friend was an engineer working on ion engines and plasma injectors. hunter Jun 2024 #2

"It's the energy source of the future, and always will be." I've been hearing that for a long time. eppur_se_muova Jul 2024 #3