Viisi vuotta

Nanotehtaita vai ei? Nyt alkavat viisi vuotta kestävät käytännön kokeet miljoonarahoituksella. Nanofactory Collaboration Colleague Awarded $3.3M to Conduct First Diamond Mechanosynthesis Experiments.

Professor Philip Moriarty of the Nanoscience Group in the School of Physics at the University of Nottingham (U.K.) has been awarded a five-year £1.67M ($3.3M) grant by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to perform a series of laboratory experiments designed to investigate the possibility of diamond mechanosynthesis (DMS). DMS is a proposed method for building diamond nanostructures, atom by atom, using the techniques of scanning probe microscopy under ultra-high vacuum conditions. Moriarty’s project, titled “Digital Matter? Towards Mechanised Mechanosynthesis,” was funded under the Leadership Fellowship program of EPSRC. Moriarty’s experiments begin in October 2008.
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Moriarty is interested in testing the viability of positionally-controlled atom-by-atom fabrication of diamondoid materials as described in the Freitas-Merkle minimal toolset theory paper (PDF) Moriarty’s efforts will be the first time that specific predictions of DFT in the area of mechanosynthesis will be rigorously tested by experiment.
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“We invite computational theorists and scanning probe experimentalists in the nanoscience community to join our Collaboration,” added Merkle. “There’s lots of interesting work to do. The first important steps toward practical realization are now underway.”

Odysseus - Aurinkoenergialla toimiva Z-siipilennokkikonsepti, jonka olisi tarkoitus pysyä stratosfäärissä yli viisi vuotta.