http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/22/beam_us_up_national_ignition_facility_star_trek?page=0,1
Excerpts:
While NIF has conducted more than 1,000 laser "shots" and set multiple records for laser power -- including a 500-terawatt shot on July 5, 2012 -- the latest goal of achieving ignition by October 1, 2012 (set in 2009) came and went. For reasons unknown, the laser's energy is only generating pressures in the target of 150 billion times the Earth's atmosphere -- about half of what is required for ignition. Moses told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month that he cannot predict when -- or if -- ignition will ever be achieved. "Our goal is of course ignition," he said. "The goal is to get there or understand why you don't." Moses estimates that total costs have reached $5 billion, although a local grassroots watchdog organization asserts costs are closer to $7.5 billion, because the laboratory has been allowed to charge some of NIF's costs to other programs. NIF's current annual costs are at least $400 million. (By comparison, the estimated budget for Star Trek Into Darkness was $190 million.)
Although NIF's weapons-related role may be fading, thanks to growing congressional frustration with slipping deadlines, a failure to achieve its primary objective, and the budgetary effects of sequestration, Star Trek has given some NIF personnel a brief bit of glory, albeit in a way that foreshadows a less than rosy future. As Simon Pegg, who plays Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott ("Scotty"), explained to io9.com, "All of those guys with red shirts in the warp core [are] all just guys from NIF who just wanted to be in Star Trek. Bruno [Van Wonterghem], the project leader there, who is the guy who will discover fusion and will go down as the next Edison" is in the background. If Moses, Van Wonterghem, and their colleagues are true Trek aficionados, the irony won't be lost on them. In Star Trek lore, anonymous crewmembers wearing red shirts are usually the first to die.
Excerpts:
While NIF has conducted more than 1,000 laser "shots" and set multiple records for laser power -- including a 500-terawatt shot on July 5, 2012 -- the latest goal of achieving ignition by October 1, 2012 (set in 2009) came and went. For reasons unknown, the laser's energy is only generating pressures in the target of 150 billion times the Earth's atmosphere -- about half of what is required for ignition. Moses told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month that he cannot predict when -- or if -- ignition will ever be achieved. "Our goal is of course ignition," he said. "The goal is to get there or understand why you don't." Moses estimates that total costs have reached $5 billion, although a local grassroots watchdog organization asserts costs are closer to $7.5 billion, because the laboratory has been allowed to charge some of NIF's costs to other programs. NIF's current annual costs are at least $400 million. (By comparison, the estimated budget for Star Trek Into Darkness was $190 million.)
Although NIF's weapons-related role may be fading, thanks to growing congressional frustration with slipping deadlines, a failure to achieve its primary objective, and the budgetary effects of sequestration, Star Trek has given some NIF personnel a brief bit of glory, albeit in a way that foreshadows a less than rosy future. As Simon Pegg, who plays Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott ("Scotty"), explained to io9.com, "All of those guys with red shirts in the warp core [are] all just guys from NIF who just wanted to be in Star Trek. Bruno [Van Wonterghem], the project leader there, who is the guy who will discover fusion and will go down as the next Edison" is in the background. If Moses, Van Wonterghem, and their colleagues are true Trek aficionados, the irony won't be lost on them. In Star Trek lore, anonymous crewmembers wearing red shirts are usually the first to die.
Comments
Moses
Really, did Moses just establish a new goal for HIF, "understand why you don't"? Understand why you don't what?
... get more funding after missing your milestone TWICE
... get any respect for the kind of EoS work your team performs..
So many ways to complete that sentence
May 23, 2013 at 8:59 PM
Ed has upholstered chains? And people straddle them? Now that's really kinky. Spell check, idiot.
..."have a snowball's chance in hell in making any progress on LIFE if you can't even achieve ignition..."
..."pursue laser EoS if you are still paying the price for the Nova D2 EoS fiasco"
..."rely on the ignition team to save face for the stockpile stewerdship experiments..."
..."want to do Pu NIF shots because you can't even analyze the streak camera films credibly."
..."want to stick around before the shite hits the fan, after all Bruce is no dummy and he made a jump to safety."
..."perpetuate the con by getting the Star Trek franchise involved to divort all attention away from FAILURE."
..."want to forget to put spelling and grammar errors into your posts to give the low-intellegence posters something to comment on, since they are incapable of making any other arguments beyond those that focus on 'Obama' or 'flatulence' or the 'unions.'"
..."want to donate money to private organizations that fund basic research in the United States.. because apparently those organizations don't exist according to some not-too-bright individual..."
Hehehehe the grammer and spelling nazi issues are all mute points by the way. He is so predictable and so sad. Why you let me play you like a puppet?
May 24, 2013 at 8:57 AM
The director and the script ruined it - they didn't need NIF to do that.
It's appalling that Moses made the statement "understand why you don't". He's admitted the failure NIF. It's clear that ignition is no longer the goal, but pursuit of why it didn't occur.
May 24, 2013 at 5:13 PM
If this be the case then congress should cut the funding entirely and let NIF depend on WFO and Weapons only funding. This will result in at least a 50% reduction in man-power need to run the facility. Maybe that ISP will be coming after all between Oct 1st and Dec 25th, 2013
May 28, 2013 at 8:46 PM
That is the language of gambling, not science. No risk to your money of course. Why not let the people who have to fund it have a say? Make your best argument, understanding that you have to make it comprehensible to your sponsors (the public) and see what happens. My guess? NIF is shut down tomorrow. You dilettantes can find another sandbox. I would not give you another dime of my hard earned money.
From an idea, an unclear concept 15 years ago to a 100-square acre, flawlessly operating instrument assimilating amazing new technologies from material, to modelling to controls...
1.8MJ of blue light.. 500TW every 4 hours on a 3 mm target... Wow.
Brilliant.
24 beamlines 192 beams, adaptive optics, 5 MJ of capacitors, amazing 9000 pcs of 40cm x40cm Nd glass, meter-long 9000 flashlamps, literally millions of optics... Cleanest large surfaces ever produced, 1000s of times better than in wafer production.
A reliable 4K target system in a shielded 10m diameter vacuum sphere. DT targets regularly meeting exacting standards. Calibrated diagnostics systems to determine performance. Models to support interpretation.
All to the highest seismic standards, every system with a safety note, checked and rechecked.
Truly a magnificent lifetime achievemnt. Something Haussman dreamed of when he hired Emmett. What Paisner, Simmons, Hurley and Frietag strove for in setting high scientific and engineering standards. What Trenholme's team predicted.
Over 1000 labbies contributed years of their lives and many, many late nights.
Remarkable. Unprecedented. The damn thing works...it regularly meets its design specs.
Thanks for the confirmation Al.
"FIAT LUX" is fulfilled.
Now on to discoveries...
Yes, thanks for the confirmation bias, indeed.
May 30, 2013 at 2:41 PM
Excellent post - reflects the absolute best LLNL has to offer.
May 29, 2013 at 1:11 AM
Certainly a shoe-in for one or more of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes !
June 1, 2013 at 4:33 PM
Yes of course, LANL precisely plans each and every accidental release. There's an office for that - just Google "LANL planned illegal radiation releases to kill everyone."