Deep Tech Week Recap with Robin Langtry

"The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time [fusion] machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"
–Doc Brown

Last week, we had an awesome (if slightly unhinged) time at Deep Tech Week in San Francisco.

At the mid-week fusion event we had some excellent lightning pitches and panelists to talk about the current state of the “Fusion Landscape”. I gave a talk on why “Fusion is Better Small” and also got to show off for the first time our prototype chip for direct energy conversion of fusion plasmas to electricity.

We also co-sponsored the launch party hosted on the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. This event, billed as a “deep tech bazaar meets Giga-rave” featured an update from Boom CEO Blake Scholl on first flight of the XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft, multiple Cyber Trucks, and a DeLorean. But not just any DeLorean – a Back to the Future Replica that we updated with a little extra flair…

Making Science Fiction Real

Coming from a deep tech background in space propulsion and reusable booster development at Blue Origin I’ve seen up close glimpses of what the future could be.

Making science fiction real was at the core of what inspired us to try and build the world’s smallest fusion machine and led us to found Avalanche Energy in 2019. Most fusion reactors are being designed as massive power plants to power the grid. But if fusion could be small, say the size of the Mr. Fusion from Back to The Future, we could unlock all the amazing Sci-Fi applications of a future past year 2015 that never came to be.

From the start, Mr. Fusion and Back to the Future have been at the forefront of our inspiration—so much so that one of our reactor prototypes is named Marty (we are saving Doc Brown for something very special). We have two other prototypes inspired by sci-fi characters as well, our first machine Neo (The Matrix) and Camina inspired by The Expanse.

With the help from my cofounder Brian Riordan, our creative and 3D graphic director, and our team of engineers, we brought Steven Spielberg’s vision into the 21st century, replacing Mr. Fusion with our very own 3D Printed Orbitron. While it doesn’t contain 1.21 Gigawatts of energy yet, it was super cool to see what the near future could look like of microfusion powered trucks, boats, remote power data centers, satellites, maybe even flying cars someday…

So, here’s to all the Deep Tech’ers pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and making science fiction real. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue our journey to revolutionize energy with fusion microreactors.