The US spends more on military spending than all ten of the following countries combined: $ 600 billion a year. This is almost ten times more than Russia spends on military spending. Meanwhile, the joint budget of NASA and the National Science Foundation is only $ 25 billion, or 4% of the military budget. Many astronomers, astrophysicists, engineers and scientists of all stripes dream of increasing the budgets of their fields.
What if we actually reached for the stars? What if we were living in an era when investments in peaceful research for the good of mankind were vastly greater than investments in war, defense, and military technology? If the space and scientific budgets of individual countries reached $ 600 billion, humanity's track record would increase significantly. Here are five possible breakthroughs that science could make if it received a military budget for just one year.
Ultimate Energy Breakthrough: Clean Energy Fusion Reactor
Although there are many different methods to achieve nuclear fusion, the most promising avenue is magnetic confinement (containment). The international consortium ITER began construction back in the Reagan-Gorbachev era, and in 2019, when the total investment reached 20 billion euros, it will be fully completed. It will take another ten years to successfully ignite the plasma, and in the 2030s we must cross the point of no return by fusing deuterium and tritium together.
Yet in many ways, the only thing holding back fusion energy from entering our world is upfront investments with incredible long-term returns. Taking the American military budget for just one year, scientists could not only achieve nuclear fusion, but also learn to scale it and revolutionize the energy sector on Earth. It is the ultimate holy grail for energy, and the greatest obstacle to its success is not physics, but a lack of investment.
Mars and its subtle atmosphere. The photograph was taken by the Viking orbiter in the 1970s. For all the difficulties of living on the Red Planet, a successful human colony could be built for as little as $ 50 billion.
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At least four separate colonies on Mars
People on Mars? The only thing stopping us is funding, which has not been available since the 1990s. With a sustainable investment of $ 50-150 billion over 10 years, we could land on the surface of Mars, landing a crew that could stay on the planet for 6-18 months before returning. We could create four separate independent colonies on another planet for $ 600 billion. The only reason we haven't done this before is funding.
Two workers install a photovoltaic array on the roof. A small 2 kW plant can be commercially available today for $ 5,000
2000-watt solar panel system in every home
There are many breakthrough technologies that could be combined with solar energy, from transparent windows to roof tiles and siding. But the cheapest and most efficient solar installation is still the solar panel. Systems that generate approximately 2,000 watts now cost less than $ 5,000 and provide around 175-375 kW per month. If you take 125 million homes in a single country, for $ 600 billion you could put a solar panel system in every home.
This would not solve our energy needs, but it would significantly reduce the load on the electrical grid and reduce the use of fossil fuels. Plus the effect would be instantaneous.
A hypothetical new accelerator, either a long linear one or surrounding the Earth, could outshine the LHC energies. But there are no guarantees that we will find something new.
Countrywide particle accelerator, 40 times more powerful than the LHC
Do you think the LHC is cool? It has achieved proton-proton collisions with an energy of 14 TeV in a 27-kilometer tunnel underground, and it cost about $ 10 billion. What could be built if there were sixty times more money? Believe it or not, there are only two free parameters that determine how powerful an annular proton accelerator can be: the strength of the electromagnets that drive them, and the circumference of your ring.
For 600 billion dollars, we could build a tunnel 1000 kilometers long and achieve proton-proton collisions at energies above 500 TeV. If our electromagnetic technology also improves, we could overcome the 1 PeV barrier (1 PeV = 1000 TeV). The next step will be the giant Fermitron, first introduced by Enrico Fermi, a particle accelerator with a circumference across the Earth. If the LHC finds anything outside the Higgs boson, it will be a clear signal to explore new energy boundaries.
"Super-Hubble", 100 times more powerful than the previous one
The Hubble Space Telescope has become a revolutionary observatory and remains in many ways a captain in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. But being 2.4 meters in diameter, it has already reached its maximum resolution. In fact, to see objects ten times fainter, he needs to observe them 100 times longer. But if we build a space telescope 10 times larger, with a 24-meter dish, its resolution will not only be 10 times higher - in 2 hours of observations, it will see everything that Hubble sees in a week.
The James Webb Space Telescope, with its segmented design, sun visor and robotic technology, could provide a proof of concept for such a mission, but funding remains the limiting factor. The size, image quality, and launch and maintenance capabilities required to create such a monster will require a large investment. For 600 billion dollars, we could reach a diameter of 30-40 meters, but "100 times more powerful than the Hubble" is a conservative estimate. The technology that we could create with this money could revolutionize the Apollo program.
Of course, we could have made breakthroughs in all these areas and for less than $ 600 billion. ITER is still under construction - and will cost a total of $ 40 billion. A single crew mission to Mars would cost $ 50 billion, including massive deployment of infrastructure on the surface of Mars. 2KW rooftop solar installations are already available for $ 5,000, but they are dropping in price every year. "Small" supercolliders are estimated at $ 20-40 billion and will be able to reach energies that the LHC never dreamed of. LUVOIR, the most ambitious space telescope ever on offer, is 40 times more powerful than the Hubble, and will cost $ 15 billion.
The cost of achieving our scientific dreams is truly astronomical, but the payoff will be even greater. In just one generation, an investment of this magnitude in science and technology could transform our world like never before. In just a year and $ 600 billion, there could be a breakthrough in scientific research for the next 25 years.
Ilya Khel