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A comment on Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next phase of operation [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by mschuster91 on Friday April 28, 2017 @01:11PM (#14221181)
> We could make it safe by having it operate in vacuum at a safe distance from the earth.

And if the thing happens to be rotated even by a milli-arc, for example due to asteroid strike or a simple software error, the receiving area will be fried by microwave. Or hackers might want to introduce a deliberate rotation to use it as an orbital based frying weapon. No thanks, that's way too risky.

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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by yorwba on Friday April 28, 2017 @01:20PM (#14221281)
Your parent comment is a joke about the sun as a fusion reactor, in case you couldn't tell.

The actual failure case to be worried about is that the reactor blows up towards the end of its life cycle.

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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by bicubic on Friday April 28, 2017 @01:18PM (#14221260)
He's talking about the sun. We already have a giant fusion reactor that we're not using.
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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by dandelany on Friday April 28, 2017 @01:26PM (#14221336)
"Not using"?! Literally all of the energy we consume on earth, except the radioactive material used in our nuclear plants, is a byproduct of said fusion reactor :)
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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by castis on Friday April 28, 2017 @02:21PM (#14221789)
And it's reactors all the way down, mate! That radioactive material was created by an ancestor of our current fusion reactor.
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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by ygra on Friday April 28, 2017 @03:12PM (#14222211)
Geothermal isn't :)
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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by the_rosentotter on Friday April 28, 2017 @01:25PM (#14221328)
This criticism is usually brought up with this kind of energy transfer (solar beamed down from orbit etc.). But would it not be rather simple to build in some kind of feedback mechanism, where the ground station beams back at the orbital unit as long as it is receiving an incoming beam?

It would act as a switch, where, as soon as the incoming beam stops, the feedback stops and the orbital transmitter would stop too, e.g. if the energy beam went out of position.

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Re:Wendelstein 7-X stellarator getting ready for the next ph... by teraflop on Friday April 28, 2017 @02:10PM (#14221717)
Don't forget about the speed-of-light delay...
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