I'd add direct thermal/electric to your range of output options, even the "old" dissimilar junction devices would be an option for low power work as the weight and reliability may be more important than output. and there are of course solid state devices - whether these fall into the category of "heat engine" is debatable. Regards JohnH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wesley Bruce" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 4:48 PM Subject: mars rovers
> I'm attending an Australian Mars Society conference AMEC 2005 on Mars > rovers and exploration. > http://www.marssociety.org.au/ > I'm going to mention LENR to those at the conference. There is still an > opening for papers so it may be semiformal presentation. Is there > anything I specifically should or should not say? > The main line I will take is that: > > * Cold fusion work is not dead. > * Its nuclear reactions in a solid Hydride where quantum tunneling > and/or electron screening effects combine to reduce the charge > barrier of the nuclei to low enough levels to allow Deuteron/ > Palladium and Deuteron/ Deuteron reactions. A few grams of fuel > would power a vehicle for a year or so. > * Reviewers are now acknowledging that it's a real effect, still not > fully reliable or understood, but some who were sceptical are now > less inclined to call it fraud or a mistake. > * The Second DOE report, December 2004, gave limited [ambiguus] > support for the data but argue that they still could not > understand it. A majority of the reviewers were much more > receptive and positive than the person that wrote the conclusion. > They did say more work should be done but recommended against > government funding. > * Doors are opening a little. Some of its opponents are slowly > coming around, conferences have been held at MIT, American > Physical Society, etc. > * We have up to 40 watts thermal per cc of palladium in some > configurations. > * We need people who can work on reducing the energy inputs to the > devices; computer controlled chemical and thermo-chemical systems. > * We need better heat flow control so we don’t allow the cell to > chill down below the starting temperature. It never was room > temperature fusion. > * We need people who can design and build efficient heat/steam > engines to convert the heat of the cells in to electricity. > * There are several dozen companies working on it worldwide. > * The technology could pop out of oblivion as a usable energy > technology at any time. It might be available to power Mars > operations. > * Any help would be appreciated. > > Note the meeting I'll be attending is three weeks away and the dead line > for anything formal could change at any time. Quick comments would be > appreciated. > > >
