Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Impossible Space Drive

Okay, I wanted to finish the last post before adding any more.  I was purposely putting off some things, but all of a sudden a lot is happening. 

First of all, there was the report from NASA's eagleworks about a drive system without any propulsion, just running off of energy creating microwaves in a tapered container.  This follows on claims of measured thrust from a Chinese group and the claims of a British inventor before that.  It caused quite a stir with the usual "impossible" responses (link).  The next step is to independently verify the claims some more.  However, if it is real could it be related to the Casimir effect?  ---where a force is exerted upon metal plates in a vacuum presumably resulting from virtual quantum particles. 

One fun speculation, the speed limit of traditional rocket engines is connected to the propellant's exhaust velocity.  If this system pans out, what is its effective exhaust velocity?  It is based on electromagnetic radiation which is a form of light.  Could it in theory accelerate to relativistic speeds. 

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