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James Cameron Now at Ocean's Deepest Point

Explorer-filmmaker reaches Mariana Trench on deepest ever solo sub dive.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... sc20120325

12 people have made it to the moon, but James Cameron is only the third person to make it to the bottom of the Earth.

Since I really dislike him as a human being, it is difficult for me to salute him for such a great achievement.

AndesSMF wrote:12 people have made it to the moon, but James Cameron is only the third person to make it to the bottom of the Earth ocean.

FIFY

The next big accomplishment after the Moon landing will be a (faster than) light speed engine.

There will never be a faster than light engine (or an engine that propels you faster than light)...teleportation is the next step.

AndesSMF wrote:

James Cameron Now at Ocean's Deepest Point

Explorer-filmmaker reaches Mariana Trench on deepest ever solo sub dive.

James Cameron, the next Amelia Earhart or Steve Fossett.

GQfluffy wrote:There will never be a faster than light engine (or an engine that propels you faster than light)...teleportation is the next step.

Following Einstein's theories, wouldn't these be the same thing?

A Bigger Accomplishment Than Landing On Moon?

Definitely not. It's exponentially more difficult and expensive to get a man to the moon (and back) than it is to get to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Just think of the difference in man hours and personnel needed to develop, build, and run the Apollo program compared to Piccard's bathyscaphe and Cameron's submersible. At its height, the Apollo program had 400,000 people involved and consumed more than 4% of the federal budget.

http://historical.whatitcosts.com/facts-apollo-space-program-pg3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA

OK, that's a pretty good comparison. Though I guess the reason why so few have gone down to the bottom is because relatively speaking little money has been spent on this program.

graphic wrote:

GQfluffy wrote:There will never be a faster than light engine (or an engine that propels you faster than light)...teleportation is the next step.

Following Einstein's theories, wouldn't these be the same thing?

Touche.

AndesSMF wrote:Though I guess the reason why so few have gone down to the bottom is because relatively speaking little money has been spent on this program.

Agreed.

It's not exploration, but IMO viable Fusion to produce energy will be the next great scientific accomplishment.

Fumanchewd wrote:It's not exploration, but IMO viable Fusion to produce energy will be the next great scientific accomplishment.

Agreed,

Personally I think the Germans are on to something with their newest Stellarator , the Wendelstein 7-X, under construction in Greifswald near Peenemunde (where the V weapons originated from), under the supervision of the Max Planck institute.

It will be the worlds first model of a useable fusion reactor if all works as planned (and by the sound of it , it really looks very promissing).
-a beta value of about 5%,
-a 30 minute runtime (and longer later on) which means a full working stationary running reactor
-an efficient and very compact heath exchange system
-economical to build and easy to maintain while running.
-etc....

http://www.ipp.mpg.de/ippcms/de/for/pro ... index.html


I guess it helps having a Chancellor (Frau Merkel) who is so well versed in
all things scientific (Drs in Quantum physics)

Well, we are also involved in the Tokamak type fusion reactor ITER, which is currently being built in southern France (There exist two design philosophies concerning fusion reactors, the Tokamak and the Stellerator, which differ mostly in the way the magnetic fields for the plasma containment are generated).

ITER is supposed to deliver ten times more energy output than input and will be used to tweak the basic design. The next step then will be a commercial reactor to be connected to the power grid.

Jan