I wrote:
> When a cathode fails in a properly equipped lab, they always know why it > failed. They can spot the defect. > Knowing why and how something fails does not mean you know how to prevent the failure. Rockets often explode. The telemetry usually tell investigators why it exploded. They try to fix that problem but they do not always succeed, and there are an unknown number of undiscovered problems left over. Rockets are very complicated systems, which operate at the extreme limits of temperature and pressure. A Pd metal lattice undergoing electrolysis is also an immensely complicated system, and it is operating at far higher pressures than any rocket or other mechanical system, albeit in a microscopic domain. It would not surprise me if it takes as much money and effort to tame the metal lattice as it took to make rockets reliable enough for commercial applications and ICBMs. A cold fusion cathode is small and featureless but that has no bearing on how complicated it is. It may turn out to be more complex than a silicon CPU chip. - Jed
