Scientists have achieved nuclear fusion what does this mean for the future
of humanity? The Future has just become a little brighter. Scientists have achieved
The Impossible they've unlocked the power of the Stars right here on Earth for the first
time ever they've successfully reproduced the process of nuclear fusion in a lab opening the
door to Limitless clean energy well Elon Musk's stream of humanity becoming an interplanetary
species finally come to fruition? What does this breakthrough mean for us and our planet?
On the simplest level, nuclear fusion is when two atoms combine to create a heavier atom
this is the process that led to the elements heavier than hydrogen to be created within the
universe's nuclear fusion powerhouses of stars inside the heart of Stellar bodies hydrogen atoms
fuse together to create helium atoms then helium atoms fuse to create carbon atoms this process
continues on and on to create many of the heavier elements when two atoms fuse to create a heavier
atom the resulting atom is always slightly less massive than the two original atoms added together
this missing mass is released in the form of energy and looking at Einstein's famous
equation E equals m c squared we can see that the mass is multiplied by the speed of
light squared which is approximately 9 with 16 zeros behind it which means a tiny bit of mass
is equivalent to an absolutely enormous amount of energy and now scientists have been able to
reproduce this Stellar process inside of a lab to achieve net positive nuclear fusion
ever since its first introduction into the scientific community in the 1950s scientists
have been trying to figure out how to use nuclear fusion to generate energy now A Team working at
the U.S national ignition facility in California were able to achieve nuclear fusion in which they
received more energy than they put in making it a net positive energy gain for the first time during
their nuclear fusion experiment the team was able to produce 3.15 megajoules of energy while only
using 2.05 megajoules to power the experiment this gave them an output of 120 of the input
in order to get the atoms to smash together the laboratory was set up to fire some of
the most powerful lasers available to them in order to energize a pellet of hydrogen Plasma
in order to trigger atoms into undergoing nuclear fusion now that net positive nuclear
fusion has been achieved the researchers are now on a quest to refine and improve
their process to try and achieve the ultimate goal in this field sustained nuclear fusion
within the sun and stars in the sky sustained nuclear fusion is the process that keeps their
engines burning when hydrogen atoms fuse together in the core of the Sun enough
energy is produced from that process to cause more atoms to undergo fusion
creating a chain reaction where no more input energy is required to keep the process going
there are a number of challenges that scientists will have to overcome before they can achieve this
sustained nuclear fusion can only occur as long as there is fuel remaining and enough energy is
contained within the system if they cannot find a way to contain the process within a specific
volume the energy produced will bleed out of the system making this entire process fizzle out
if scientists can achieve sustained nuclear fusion it will give Humanity essentially an endless
supply of clean energy think about how that would change the way that our society works if energy
is freely available for anyone to use Society could then turn their focus from generating
enough energy to keep our world working and begin working on more matters that can help Humanity
one of the large setbacks that space agencies have had in designing rocket engines that can
cut travel time down significantly is the source of energy and fuel they can use
modern rockets can only go so fast because of the efficiency they can achieve when burning chemical
rocket fuel in order to generate thrust and based on the current projections this will not change
at least for the initial steps of space flight chemical fuel will still be needed to get the
spacecraft out of the Earth's atmosphere due to their unmatched thrust generation
but if scientists were able to utilize a sustained nuclear fusion reaction on
board of a spacecraft that energy could be used to power extremely efficient engines
that will be able to sustain a constant thrust to accelerate crafts through space
currently nuclear engines that have been designed to use nuclear fission as a power source but
adapting them to utilize a source of nuclear fusion would greatly increase their efficiency
and power while nuclear engines of today generate less thrust than traditional chemical fuel they
can provide continual thrust for a much longer time while using up much less material as fuel
there are several types of fusion engines that have been in development ever since
the question of obtaining nuclear fusion in a lab became a question of when and not if
one of the most promising fission-driven Rockets called a nuclear electric propulsion or NEP engine
uses thermal energy generated from a nuclear reactor and converts it into electric energy
which eliminates the need for a propellant greatly reducing storage needs the current designs of net
rocket engines utilizing nuclear fission would already cut the travel time to Mars by at least
60 percent and due to the nature of these engines further trips would only allow the spacecraft to
accelerate faster making them even more efficient and faster the longer a spacecraft is traveling
for but now that nuclear fusion has been obtained a new type of nuclear-powered rocket that blows
all others out of the running May completely change the future of space travel [Music]
in order to become an interplanetary species travel within our solar system would need to
become commonplace NASA scientists have been working on ways to capture and use the power of
a sustained fusion reaction in order to generate thrust the fusion-driven rocket or FDR is a new
generation of engines in which the fusion Source infuses its energy directly into the propellant
bypassing the need to convert the energy into electricity this process would theoretically
give the propellant an enormous exhaust velocity approaching 30 kilometers per second
possibly eliminating the need for chemical fuel to break free from Earth's gravitational pull
and because of the nature of the fusion-driven engine there would be no significant physical
interaction with the body of the rocket itself greatly minimizing the amount of damage and
reducing the amount of thermal energy it would receive the development of this type of engine
would revolutionize space travel not only making it faster and more efficient but also
making it affordable allowing virtually anyone to take a trip through space if they wanted to
because of the amount of energy a reactor with sustained nuclear fusion would produce
future spacecrafts have a lot of room to grow in terms of power and speed
one researcher working developing a nuclear fusion reactor is small enough to fit in a spacecraft
believes that with enough funding the type of engines required to take us from planet to planet
could be developed in less than two decades these types of engines would also allow near unlimited
energy to help power life support and other critical systems on board the spacecraft without
having to worry about additional power sources researchers have noted that current theoretical
designs of fusion Rockets would cut a trip to the moon down to a matter of hours and trips
to Mars and other planets down to Mere months additionally in the future scientists may be
able to advance this technology enough in order to create spacecrafts capable of interstellar travel
the closest star to us Proxima Centauri sits just under four and a quarter light years from
Earth and if scientists can create a craft capable of speeds of just a small percentage
of the speed of light sending a probe to this star would be possible within one generation
and there is no signs that Fusion driven Rockets would stop there some scientists believe they
could hold the answer to achieving science fiction levels of space travel at speeds faster than light
thanks for watching do you think you would want to take a trip around the solar system if it
would only take a few months or would you want to wait for a bigger trip to another star system
see you next time on Matter