Planets 'could be traded like real estate in future' says expert
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Richard Dinan’s company, Pulsar Fusion, is working on harnessing the same power as the Sun to create a fusion rocket. This, the entrepreneur says, will slash the time it takes to get to Mars and one day allow humans to inhabit other planets outside of our Solar System. Asked exclusively on Science Digest if it was his ambition to one day claim one of these planets, the 35-year-old said: “If it’s not me, we [humans] will do it.”
He added: “Is it my ambition to claim a planet? Well, the interesting thing about money is it’s developed for a planet where we all live.
“It means we have to be near each other to enjoy that money.
“If my grandchildren can fire off towards another planet, then they will devalue my currency – they can’t take it with them.
“So we need an interplanetary currency – if everyone starts jetting off into different distances we have relativity to deal with.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/I6pBVBPbJMM
“So what will be a commodity that they could trade in the future world? One is possibly planets.”
It is estimated that there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Mr Dinan, who is also a former Made In Chelsea star, said that being the first to claim one of these would be smart investment.
He added: “The further away you travel from Earth, the more realistic those planets become and the more value they obtain.
“One day you might be able to say ‘I own this many planets’ and as technology increases, they become more accessible.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD DINAN HERE.
“The ones nearest to Earth will become more valuable and as technology moves on, those planets in your portfolio are going to increase in value.
“Maybe in future people will trade interplanetary real estate.”
Mr Dinan is betting on harnessing nuclear fusion in a rocket – the process used by stars where hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium and matter.
Tipped as the “holy grail” energy source, scientists around the world are racing to try and crack the code to get the reaction to use up less energy than it produces.
To do so, huge fusion reactors have to be created on Earth, like the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France which is roughly the size of 60 football pitches.
DON’T MISS:
Energy: ‘overlooked solution’ could end Europe’s reliance on Russia [INSIGHT]
Monkeypox outbreak: Virus may be ‘hypermutated’ [REPORT]
Energy crisis lifeline as UK company vows to slash price cap [REVEAL]
This will be home the the world’s largest tokamak – the machine that confines a plasma using magnetic fields in a donut shape that scientists call a torus.
But, in the vacuum of space, this process can be created much easier – as Mr Dinan says, it is “ultimately where the stars are”.
He added: “Fusion means that we are not just that species that ultimately just start to destroy all our planet’s resources and then blow ourselves up.
“We don’t know our future, but if we can do fusion, it means we can power our planet cleanly forever and it means that we can actually leave our Solar System.
“The speed that rocket engines that use fire move at will never give us that speed.
“Pulsar knows we can build a fusion rocket engine well before anyone builds a fusion power station.”
Pulsar recently tested its plasma engine that will be used to blast its rocket into orbit.
And it plans to test its nuclear reactor on Earth next year.
This, Mr Dinan claims, sets his company up to test its fusion rocket by 2027.
Source: Read Full Article
