02-06-2023, 08:36 PM
That ship is battery powered. I didn't see anything in the article that mentioned where the electricity came from to charge it. Imagine the irony if it was "green energy" made by windmills when humans traversed the oceans for hundreds of years by wind power without using child labor to mine cobalt for "green" batteries.
Of course the militaries have been using electric powered propulsion since the 1950s. More electricity is generated by nuclear reactors for propulsion than is generated on land for use in our 'grids'. I don't see that coming to civilian use anytime soon. The maintenance required to keep one running requires a small city's worth of personnel, and the cost to decommission one is billions of dollars and takes many years.
About 10 years ago Lockheed Martin was 5 years away from a portable fusion reactor because the existing fission technology was enough to equip the next generation of aircraft carriers with enough power for either propulsion or their new fangled energy weapons, but not both at the same time. Maybe now that 5 year window has been whittled down to 20 in the real world.
Of course the militaries have been using electric powered propulsion since the 1950s. More electricity is generated by nuclear reactors for propulsion than is generated on land for use in our 'grids'. I don't see that coming to civilian use anytime soon. The maintenance required to keep one running requires a small city's worth of personnel, and the cost to decommission one is billions of dollars and takes many years.
About 10 years ago Lockheed Martin was 5 years away from a portable fusion reactor because the existing fission technology was enough to equip the next generation of aircraft carriers with enough power for either propulsion or their new fangled energy weapons, but not both at the same time. Maybe now that 5 year window has been whittled down to 20 in the real world.