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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Fusion
Message-ID: <6493@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Mar-86 14:17:36 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6493
Posted: Wed Mar 12 14:17:36 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Mar-86 14:17:36 EST
References: <[MC.LCS.MIT.EDU].846118.860310.KFL>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 12

>   This is good, but we need fusion too.  Solar power is not much use
> when you need ENROMOUS amounts of energy or when you need it far from
> the Sun.  Interstellar spaceships should be fusion powered.

Actually, they should be antimatter-powered... and probably will be.
We are not that far from practical (although costly) antimatter rockets.
The technology won't be very useful for power plants, since antimatter
production is horrendously inefficient.  But for applications where
the energy/mass ratio is critical, i.e. starships, fusion isn't even close.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry