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What scientific discovery, which could actually happen in the next 5 years, would have the most impact in our lives in you opinion? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 months ago by linucs@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] fishos@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

While I agree with what you've said, I've always felt fusion and other such tech is the future of long distance space travel, not Earth based energy use. Wind and hydro are useless in space and solar has issues with power accumulation the further away from a star you go. We will still need some kind of "fuel" based energy source if we're ever to enter deep space and cross the gaps(unless battery tech increases much further to the point that a "battery" lasts a significant portion of the vehicles lifetime). Even then, you'd need recharge stations at each end or to park by a star to refuel in between.

We have fusion/fission now. That kind of battery tech is still a ways off. Feels shortsighted to ignore nuclear now just because it's not perfect in this specific environment. After all, name any vehicle not powered by nuclear that can run for 20-30 years before it needs to refuel/recharge. No battery tech can even come close currently.