| I suppose you could look at it as a spaceship. We have know for centuries that all you need to go high is a big fire pointing down, but soon realized that the hard part was maintaining the fire long enough to reach orbit or other planets. And even when that would become possible, the problem of how to land in the destination, build shelters and grow food remains. So, why we insist on this irrational pursuit? First because we can. Second because the the search needed to achieve that generates far more societal benefit than just the space goals. And third because society can pursuit many goals at once. We have several people, just let them explore. So, fusion is hard, but very probably not impossible. The pursuit of it will advance science and technology. If successful, can trigger societal changes we can only imagine today (serious carbon capture becomes possible. Smelting of very energy intensive alloys becomes cheaper and possible). And if the ultimate goal of a miniaturized reactor becomes possible, our spaceships can fly basically anywhere. |