Laser to create Star on Earth?

https://lasers.llnl.gov/

Scientists are trying to use world's largest laser to create nuclear fusion Reaction could be used to produce nearly limitless energy First live experiment with laser takes place this summer Laser, which is the size of three football fields, is located in California

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science...ex.html?hpt=C1

Quite possibly one of the coolest stories in a long time on CNN. Would creating a reaction of this magnitude work? Hell if I know, i'm no scientist. I believe if they can pull it off this could possibly be one of the greatest achievements ..ever.

Someone made a thread about this a few months ago.

Not only do I think it will work (one day, if not in the near future,) but I think it's going to be one of the major turning points in the advancement of human technology. If you have virtually unlimited energy, you no longer really have to worry about a lot of things. A lot of "theoretical processes" that are considered convoluted and inefficient now will become trivial.

The other major turning point will be when we begin seriously harvesting the asteroids. I think this will come after controlled fusion, though. If we figure out how to control fusion, and we gain the ability to easily harvest asteroids, we've essentially got unlimited energy and resources. Asteroids are loaded with all sorts of useful materials and precious metals, compared to the Earth's crust. The most notable metal in my opinion would be iridium, which is what even the best alloys strive to be like. It's incredibly hard, strong, corrosion resistant, and it has better high-temperature mechanical properties than any other metal.

If you have virtually unlimited energy, you no longer really have to worry about a lot of things. A lot of "theoretical processes" that are considered convoluted and inefficient now will become trivial.

So, what, do you mean things like ... flying cars, and such? It would basically send up into the future, wouldn't it? Like a second-revolution. Also, what could happen if they make a mistake? Does this endanger us? No matter how many precautions you take, there is still a small chance something goes wrong, afterall. We need to make sure this isn't going to blow up in our faces, and have the opposite effect we're hoping for.

I was talking more about how engineers currently have to balance cost and benefit, in regards to processing. Right now, the idea is to find the optimal point where you've got sufficient benefit for whatever your costs are. However, if you've got unlimited energy, a lot of your cost basically goes away, so you can either make the same product for cheaper, or a better product for the same price.

It's the same in principal as how computer part prices work. If you've got something that is about 50% as good as "the best", it would cost you relatively little for a pretty significant upgrade. However, if you've got something that is, say, 95% as good as "the best", any upgrades you could get would not only be incredibly expensive, but would likely be unnoticeably different.

Technically the exact outcome is unknown until they actually do it.

True enough. I guess we'll wait and see.

So, we'll still have to use, like, gas and stuff for cars, then, huh?

If we master fusion, why do we need to mine exotic metals? We can create them through fusion.

I think that asteroid harvesting will stay a dream until a next generation propulsion technology matures. What ever happened to that ion dive that NASA was working on?