Comment on Open Thread June 2010, Part 3

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:48:41 GMT

Automatically self-repairing nanotech construction?

You would need not only self-repairing nanotech but such technology that could withstand both large amounts of radiation as well as strong magnetic fields. Of the currently proposed major methods of nanotech I'm not aware of any that has anything resembling a chance to meet those criteria (with the disclaimer that I'm not a chemist.) If we had nanotech that was that robust it would bump up so many different technologies that fusion would look pretty unnecessary. For example the main barrier to space elevators is efficient reliable synthesis of long chains of carbon nanotubes that could be placed in a functional composite (see this NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts Report for a discussion of these and related issues). We'd almost certainly have that technology well before anything like self-repairing nanotech that stayed functional in high radiation environments. And if you have functional space elevators then you get cheap solar power because it becomes very easy to launch solar power satellites.

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