🚀 go-pugleaf

rcs@cs.arizona.edu (Richard Schroeppel) writes:

> Since fusing protons is so hard, why not use deuterons?
> They fuse at a lower temperature, and the reaction only
> requires regrouping the nucleons, rather than invoking the
> weak force to transmute p->n.  The Earth's d/p ratio is ~.0001.
> Perhaps the ramscoop collector could selectively enrich d,
> by selecting for atoms having a magnetic moment.
> 
> Rich Schroeppel  rcs@cs.arizona.edu
> 

Actually, it's roughly 1:6500 (I _think_).  The thing is that it doesn't 
provide much energy.  Besides, the p-p fusion was only planned to be used 
at velocities at which the beta- decay would be common enough to actually 
be UTILIZED.  What do you mean by enriched, and, if it's not too much of 
a stoop for you, could you explain "magnetic moment" to a Grade 11?

                                                Jason Cooper