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Re:Helion Energy achieves fusion milestone by kilroy123 on Thursday July 22, 2021 @06:39PM (#27925211)
The simple "airplane" they flew was enormously less of a technical challenge than a fusion reactor.

The days of easy, made-in-the-garage inventions are way over. Nuclear fusion reactors will not be created in some garage.

We need serious government money funding many labs and groups or a massive Manhattan project.

We're talking about making a miniature star in a box.

Re:Helion Energy achieves fusion milestone by arcbyte on Thursday July 22, 2021 @07:25PM (#27925537)
Says someone who will never create an easy, made-in-the-garage invention.

Attitude is everything

Re:Helion Energy achieves fusion milestone by csb6 on Friday July 23, 2021 @12:37AM (#27927259)
Attitude is not everything. It matters, but there are material factors in the world that are hard constraints no matter how you approach the problem.

For example, you cannot simply create a fusion reactor by “really wanting it” and “being smart” and “thinking outside the box”. You have to have all of those traits, plus extensive knowledge of physics and access to rare, expensive materials/tools in order to make a solution due to the tremendous temperatures and complex reactions happening.

The Wright Brothers had comparatively few obstacles in terms of physics. They did not need to acquire a material able to withstand 100 million degrees of heat, for instance. They did not need to understand the mechanics of a fusion reaction, which is orders of magnitude more complex than the mechanics of the Wright Brothers’ aircraft in flight.

Many useful inventions can be created with few resources. Creativity matters. But acting like attitude and elbow grease is “everything” is naive, especially in the context of nuclear fusion research.

Re:Helion Energy achieves fusion milestone by foota on Saturday July 31, 2021 @02:51AM (#28015959)
In fairness, resources have also scaled. What's a few hundred million when that much only buys a tenth of a Duolingo?