Lockheed Martin is developing a compact fusion reactor (CFR). First announced last year, Lockheed Martin recently reaffirmed that they believe small and scalable fusion systems are both possible and can be practical enough to power interplanetary space travel, commercial shipping vessels, and electrical generating stations for entire cities. They're aiming to have a prototype in five years and a production unit in ten. Fusion, the nuclear process by which the sun operates, is an attractive scientific concept to master. The technology has been "10 years away" since the 50's, though followers have reason to believe this endeavor might be different. Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has a legendary history of advanced innovation - the [lightbox title="Title" href="http://www.icosa.co/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/88a28a8877aa538242258691346c017f.jpg"]SR-71 Blackbird[/lightbox] spy-plane instantly comes to mind.

Thomas McGuire, an aeronautical engineer in the Skunk Work’s Revolutionary Technology Programs unit, describes Lockheed Martin's approach:

Aviation Week was given exclusive access to the latest experiment. Read Guy Norris' piece for further information.

Fusion has been the holy grail of energy since the 50s, though it hasn't yet been able to produce more power than it consumes to run. Many brilliant people have tried and have failed to make it work. In this Google Solve-for-X presentation, Charles Chase from Lockheed Martin announces a radical solution to the global problems of energy access and climate change: compact fusion reactors. The Advanced Development Program, better known as the original "Skunkworks", is responsible for developing some of Lockheed's most famous designs such as the [lightbox title="Title" href="http://www.icosa.co/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/88a28a8877aa538242258691346c017f.jpg"]SR-71 Blackbird[/lightbox] and the [lightbox title="Title" href="http://www.icosa.co/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Lockheed_Martin_F-22A_Raptor_JSOH.jpg"]F-22 Raptor.[/lightbox] They take far out, ambitious ideas and engineer them into reality.

There are currently 1.3 billion people without energy access. For those who do have access, energy use is growing; Charles explains that energy demand will double by 2050. The roughly 1,200 new coal power plants required to meet such future demand would cost trillions and endanger our environment. Lockheed Martin thinks they have an "adjacent possibility" in which something new is created by combining different parts of things that already exist. Using a high beta method of plasma containment would allow the reaction to finally break fusion's plagued history. (β = plasma pressure / magnetic pressure) [lightbox title="Title" href="http://www.icosa.co/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Screen-Shot-2013-02-14-at-12.47.05-PM.png"]Compact Fusion Reactors[/lightbox] could become a mass-produced alternative to the large, expensive, and complex systems of the past. "If we don't try, nothing is going to happen", Charles Chase concluded during his presentation on this incredible moonshot project, "it takes a persistence of vision."

Could this become reality? Imagine what could we do with this abundant energy source...