Hard-working astro-boffins have filed a scientific paper from space. Published today in the journal Europhysics Letters, it is believed to be the first article in an earthly publication ever to have been submitted from outside the planet. Editor Michael Schreiber said that the journal had always attracted manuscripts from …

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Friday 11th November 2011 16:02 GMT Anonymous Coward

Here is a stupid question, but forgoing the obvious logistics of transporting equipment to the moon, how much easier would it be to run a fusion reactor due to it's lower gravity?

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1. Sunday 13th November 2011 22:58 GMT peter 45
  
  Probably easy peasy compared to the problems of getting the lec tricery back to earth.
  
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Friday 11th November 2011 16:02 GMT Red Bren

Outside the planet?

So up until now, all boffins have been submitting papers from their underground bunkers?

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1. Friday 11th November 2011 21:31 GMT K. Adams
  
  Last I knew, the Kármán line...
  
  ... defined the boundary between terrestrial and astronautical record-keeping. It is defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) as being 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) above mean sea level.
  
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Friday 11th November 2011 16:36 GMT Alty

Piiiigs iiin spaaaace!

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Friday 11th November 2011 17:44 GMT Yet Another Anonymous coward

Gravity no big deal

Gravity is pretty insignificant compared to the magnetic forces on the plasma. And the main problems is keeping it away from the walls as it goes round the donut - rather than it falling onto the floor.

This setup is just useful for research because it lets you have a very small bit of plasma just sit there for a moment while you measure it.

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1. Saturday 12th November 2011 17:18 GMT Dave Bell
  
  And, because of the interactions between the plasma and the magnetic field, a magnetic containment probably messes with the speed of sound.
  
  This can't be the first scientific paper to have come out of work on the ISS, and maybe it's a little bit of a stunt, but having one of the authors in space when it is submitted and published; that is one of those little signs that things are changing.
  
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