#NotInMyJournal
07.03.2026 17:24
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#NotInMyJournal
While reading Roald Sagdeev’s memoirs, I came across a quote from Pyotr Kapitsa, written on a preprint he had sent—of all people—to Stalin: “One is not a scientist who simply carries on scientific research; a scientist is one who cannot *not* carry on scientific research.”
GF uses a CT, so still relevant.
Back to Vancouver for phase two of the “Make Fusion in 2026” sabbatical, traveling light with only the essentials from Montreal.
Sometimes you’re browsing the McMaster catalogue and come across something so adorable you add it to your cart without really needing it. This miniature ball valve did not disappoint.
That’s a wrap on #SciTech2026. Plenty of interest and sharp conversations around our work on beamed‑energy propulsion and solar‑wind surfing. Feels good to leave a mark on the Space Coast.
Cocoa Beach. A respectable little surf break. Apparently they also launch rockets nearby.
With my crew at the VAB at Kennedy Space Center. Artemis II is scheduled to roll out to Pad 39B at the end of this week.
Here’s the papers my students and colleagues will be presenting at #SciTech2026 this week.
Aerospace peeps: I’m at SciTech for first time in 30 years! #SciTech2026
The image shows the hourglass shape of the length of the day and night over the 365 days in 2025. Diagonal bands indicate when the Moon was up in the night sky.
Happy new year! My all sky camera imaged the sky every 15 seconds and this picture shows what happened in the sky in 2025. It shows the length of the night and day with the hourglass shape, the monthly lunar cycle with the diagonal bands, the elevation of the Sun at local noon, and lots of clouds.
Let’s proceed to engage this mission. Among all proposed deep‑space initiatives, none are more demanding in terms of propulsion, precision, and endurance than a mission to the Solar Gravitational Lens—but the scientific return would be incredible.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Back in the #Laurentians. Back in my happy place.
Another chapter in the long, bizarre history of fusion. Will make a nice trilogy along with Juan Perón and Lyndon LaRouche.
Mount Baker and Lions Gate Bridge, viewed from Cypress Mountain, Vancouver.
The magic of leaving Vancouver Island at sunset on @bcferries.bsky.social.
Props to Long Beach Surf Shop for the expert kit and local wisdom. Every session was saltwater joy. Until next time, Tofino.
My third sabbatical in a row with convenient access to field sites for nonlinear wave studies! #LiveToSurf
Big new (at least for me): I’m on sabbatical leave from McGill this year and working full-time with General Fusion in Vancouver. With 2026 shaping up to be a pivot year for commercial fusion, I’m excited to be on-site and contributing directly to the effort.
Unfiltered glimpses of our solar system revealed through raw, breathtaking images. Our group works with one goal in mind: to someday capture such images from other solar systems.
“How a Billionaire’s Plan to Reach Another Star Fell Apart”
Our group is still at it, stubbornly in the trenches, steadily chipping away at the key problems that must be solved to reach the nearest stars. The work continues. Onward!
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
Forty-two years ago, “The Day After” reshaped public discourse around the possibility of nuclear war, even profoundly influencing the sitting U.S. President. Can we hope that, in the hands of a gifted director like Bigelow, such impact might be felt again?
youtu.be/0w6wUqWU3yU?...
If you can solve these issues with electromagnetic launchers, deep-pocketed people should be pounding a path to your door and dumping truckloads of money in your driveway. (FLF comes to mind.)
I think the limitations on coilguns are more significant than just the engineering of ancillary systems like storage and cooling. Hint on the keywords to search in the literature: “armature capture” (i.e., coilguns often turn into decelerators as projectile velocities exceed 1 km/s).
“I would bet good money the primary issue here is zero real interest…” During the peak of SDI in the 1980s, plenty of funding was poured into the correct talent (including at LANL), but no clear path to achieving speeds beyond a few km/s was ever found.
I believe there are fundamental challenges to EM launch, which are fundamentally different from those involved in accelerating charged particles. Coilguns rely on mutual inductance between the drive coil and the projectile, leading to issues such as current ramping, back-EMF, and precise timing.
This isn't my wheelhouse, but I've followed the development of EM launchers for 35 years, having read every volume of the proceedings from the International Symposia on Electromagnetic Launch Technology forwards and backwards.
“6 km/s was supposedly easily achievable.”
Yet, more than 30 years later, wasn’t achieved.
I wrote an op-ed on the world-class STEM research ecosystem in the United States, and how this ecosystem is now under attack on multiple fronts by the current administration: newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-an-awar...
Congratulations to Space Concordia Rocketry Division on the successful launch of Starsailor, featuring the largest student-built bipropellant rocket engine ever flown (35 kN thrust). The launch occurred approximately 1 hr 16 mins into the livestream linked below.
www.youtube.com/live/610YciE...
