launchSpaceX Stainless Steel Rocket Will Be Lighter and Stronger and Have 65X Lower Cost Material,

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
Elon Musk explained to Popular Mechanics why SpaceX switched to a 300 series alloy of stainless steel. Advanced carbon-fiber structure made very slow progress and the cost per kilogram was $135. There is a lot of cutting and they would …
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energyLPP Fusion Update for 2019

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
LPP Fusion is working on dense plasma focus fusion. LPP Fusion Technical Milestones in 2018: Completed experiments with tungsten electrodes Observational confirmation of the destruction of filaments Publication of cosmology results in leading journal—Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society …
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energyNuclear Fusion Commercialization Race

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
Nextbigfuture was emailed a correction for TAE Technologies. In a video, the CEO of TAE Technologies said that TAE Technologies would commercialize within 5 years. TAE Technologies clarified in an email that they would begin commercialization efforts by 2023. This …
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energyRussia Will Test a New Sodium Fast Reactor and Reprocessing to Handle All Nuclear Waste

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
The MBIR is a sodium-cooled fast reactor with 150 megawatts of thermal power and will have a design life of up to 50 years. It will be a multi-loop research reactor capable of testing lead, lead-bismuth and gas coolants, and …
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energyIf TAE Technologies Succeeds With Commercial Fusion Then a Fusion Rocket Will Follow

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
TAE Technologies has also looked at building a nuclear fusion rocket. Nextbigfuture had covered TAE Technologies recent announcement that they will have a commercial nuclear fusion rocket by 2023. The design is from an older 2004 paper. Any new system …
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energyCTO of General Fusion Forecasts Ten Years to Commercial Fusion

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
CBC News has a new article which reports that Mike Delage, chief technology officer at General Fusion thinks commercial fusion could be as little as a decade away. Nextbigfuture interviewed Christofer Mowry, CEO of General Fusion in May, 2018 at …
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darpaDARPA Creating Physically Provable Assurances Around Data Security and Privacy

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January 22, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
DARPA is seeking to create new software and hardware architectures that provide physically provable assurances around data security and privacy. Keeping a system completely disconnected from all means of information transfer is an unrealistic security tactic. Modern computing systems must …
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australiaElon Musk and CERN Confirm Discussions for Cheaper Future Collider

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January 21, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
Three days ago when CERN announced the Future Collider, Nextbigfuture described the obvious benefits for Elon Musk’s Boring Company to dig the 100-kilometer tunnel. Today, Elon Musk has tweeted confirmation that he has talked to the Director of CERN about …
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dronesGigafactory 3 Video and Satellite Pictures

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January 21, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
Buildingtesla.com has pictures from the European Space Agency – Sentinal 2 from December 17, 2018 to January 21, 2019. The satellite pictures from Sentinal 2 show some new roads and a white pad. The white pad could be cement. Sentinel-2 …
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spaceSpaceX Texas Spaceport Schematic and Artist Conception

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January 21, 2019 | Brian Wang |
 
SpaceX is initially building a launch pad for the Starhopper at Boca Chica, Texas. However, SpaceX has to build a lot more for the orbital Super Heavy Starship launches. There are older plans and artists renderings of the Boca Chica …
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