Modular, expandable design

[Richard Hull]

mhecht's link to the NASA mirror machine in the links section was nice.

Mirror machines fell out of favor just as the tokomaks started to be built. It is back with new ideas and new blood. So is the fusor.

The point of this post is to point out the interesitng modularity of the mirror machine and its relatively small size. (see the photos in the link)

They seem to have used three roll-about cages so that the machine could be transported and moved with only moderate hassle. Try and do this with a tokomak!

It is like Bob Hirsch said to me. "If fusion can be done on a feasible basis, it can be done in the small first."

I would recommend a modular design of the fusor for the amateur. I had a pretty modular design with fusor III in the beginning. It was designed to be portable. This proved to be a bad idea as many components were not portable in the sense of "pick it up and move it about." However, the concept was sound for growth.

Perhaps one of the most inspired designs I have seen is Joe Zambelli's fusor. If you will notice, his fusor has full, installed, but blanked off, ports for ion guns in a future iteration. It cost a lot more, but allows for ready modification. His fusor I, ostensibly, be his fusor VII.

Sometimes I think I just like spending money and machining and welding. Maybe so, but Joe's idea is great and miming it would not be so bad.

I will post an image of my early fusor III design in images du jour.

Richard Hull