Flutterby™! : Photon Relativity Drive

Photon Relativity Drive

2006-09-23 10:59:20.707679+00 by meuon 4 comments

New Scientist Article is worth a read, a working prototype is capable of 300 millinewtons of thrust (not much) from 1kw of electricity. Still, that's measurable. In the original goal of positioning thrusters for solar powered orbital satellites, it is useful thrust, without the weigh (and short life) of fuel.

If we can get him, and the perpetual motion/energy guys at Steorn (mentioned earlier) together, we could have hovering vehicles that require no fuel....

Scotty, when can you beam me up?

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-23 21:48:12.644813+00 by: TheSHAD0W

Don't always believe what you read.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-23 22:12:24.053757+00 by: Dan Lyke

That's an ounce and a half off of a standard wall plug. It should be relatively simple to verify his results. This isn't publishing in some journal, this is a few people walking into his lab, poking about, and saying "yeah" or "nay".

#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-24 03:47:44.258027+00 by: meuon

TheShadow, - Don't worry, I'm not buying stock or anything that stupid. I've also fixed 6+mev 'x-ray machines' and know a bit about waveguides and RF. I know just enough to say: Hmmmmm... and wonder. And hope.

And Dan's right: If it's the size of a 'large copper cake tin' as it says, it should be relatvily easy to very his work.

It certainly is being talked about online, and has been around for a while. Good article and pics (scroll down): http://www.shelleys.demon.co.uk/fdec02em.htm and main (bad) website at: http://www.emdrive.com

#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-25 15:49:53.353799+00 by: petronius [edit history]

Shades of the Dean Drive. I saw that one on TV when I was a kid. Dean appeared on the popular quiz show I've Got a Secret and put his little gadget on a common bathroom scale and spun it up. The number on the dial did go down for a few seconds every now and then. However, the current thinking is that the sudden change in balance by the whirling weights tricked the scale. Jerry Pournelle's article points out that the lone genius who demands the cash before he will open the hatch on the side of the perpetual motion machine is pretty fishy. Dean did get a patent, but by claiming the gadget was something else, rather than a reactionless drive. He faked out the Patent Office.

I would hope the Brits subject this thing to the proper testing. Science writer Harry Stine suggested one experiment when he was writing about Dean back in the 1950s: Hang the gadget from a rope, fire it up, and see if it swings past the plumb line.