Nuclear fusion is the same process that powers the sun. If we can achieve that, it could potentially provide us with limitless cheap energy. There have been numerous experiments to date, but they've always used more power than they created.

Up until now that is. Researchers have now been able to tip that balance. Fusion could definitely be a possibility.

According to the researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, they have been conducting fusion experiments for some time. It uses 192 beams from the world's most powerful laser. They heated and compressed a small pellet of hydrogen fuel until nuclear fusion reactions took place. Before, they had to dump more power in using the lasers.

But now, the BBC is reporting, that during an experiment in September, the "amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel".

This may just be the first time any fusion experiment has managed to do this.

Still, this is just the beginning. The goal here is to achieve ignition - which is the point at whch nuclear fusion reaction generates as much energy as the lasers supply.

Deep space travel could be possible? [BBC Image by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]