About this project

Howdy all you amazing people,

What is this all about?
We are a group of eager scientists, students and artists from the University of St. Thomas in Houston. And we are building a fusion reactor. You may be thinking: "a fusion reactor? Don't you need billions of dollars and a ton of government permits?" That’s the idea behind the "Fusion in a Bubblegum machine" project. We hope to use the project to demonstrate to future scientists (and
everyone really) that even intimidating scientific concepts like that of fusion reactors are within the grasp of anyone with a little motivation and creativity, and to prove it we're going to
create one using a bubblegum machine!

Why do Fusion Reactors cost money?
The majority of the reactor is being built with scavenged parts. Our high voltage transformer for example was recycled from an old crt monitor. But we do need funding for a few unavoidable costs such as the Glass Vacuum Chamber, Deuterium Gas, custom fittings and eventually a "Bubble Neutron Dosimeter" so we can verify that our reaction does result in fusion. For more details on "amateur" fusion check out this fact filled website.We got alot of inspiration and motivation for this project from there.

Why Kickstarter?
We were looking at corporate sponsors to fund the project; However I think to be able to say it was built and funded by these amazing individuals is a much better message than saying funded by Random Energy Corporation. Especially since the purpose of this project is to instill the idea that you don't need corporate funds to do really cool and amazing science.

Rewards
For examples of what art by Leticia will look like Check out her blog
For examples of Elaine's artistic endeavors,She has a Flickr.
For all other rewards, more information may or may not be revealed later ;)

Note: Regretably the bigger rewards do not include shipping
If you have any questions about the project, rewards, random physics problems, anything.
You can contact us
by Phone:(202) 905-2060
by email: president (at) ustengineering.com
by kickstarter: scroll to the bottom right
or check out our website at USTengineering.com