Comment My better system ... (Score 1) 301
Many years ago I figured out a much better magnetic reaction drive that will work and is pratical. I'll first explain it using a mechanical analogue and then describe a electromagnetic implementation of the idea.
The mechanical analogue :
Imagine a metal ball on a rod attached to a second rod via a rotary joint. Spanned over the rod-to-rod joint is a linear actuator.
Ball
Rod 1
Rod 2
Rod 2 is achored to the space ships hull.
Now imagine the actuator is unpowered and you swing the ball around. This results in a strong centrifugal force outwards. The rods are pulled into a collinear arrangement.
Now as the ball is swung around, the actuator actuates to decrease the angle between the rods from 180 degrees to , say, 90 degrees. In the quadrant of the rotation in which this happens the centrifugal force is reduced as the distance from the ball to the anchor point is reduced. Note that the angular speed of rotation stays constant.
This results in an occilatory centifugal force acting on the hull. The weakening and strenthening of the centrifugal force will occur at specific angular swing positions. Now to remove the lateral ocilatory effect on the hull you need a second ball and rod arrangements rotating as a mirror image to the first one :
Ball _________ Ball
Rod 1 _ Rod 1
Rod 2 _______ Rod 2
(Note : lines just there to force correct word spacing.)
Note that altough I cant draw this, both balls are achored to the same point on the hull and they rorate in opposite directions.
If this is done properly you have a osilating backwards and forwards thrust (no lateral thrust) on the hull BUT the foward comnponent is greater so there is a NET forward thrust.
Lastly you add another pair of balls and rotate them in such a way with the first two to cancel out the reverse thrust so that a NET CONSTANT FORWARD thrust is produced.
i.e. Energy in (nuclear power pack ?) = Work done in accelerating space ship.
Note no fuel is consumed ! Direct conversion of energy into work done in accelerating spaceship.
The acceleation will be low (cant take off in Earth's atmosphere !) but in space the constant accleration can eventually result in enormous speeds.
This is a clunky mechanical way of doing it, which works ( I've built a prototype !).
A more elegant implemetation is to cause four magetic metal balls to follow the same paths described above using external magnetic fields.
Again no fuel consumption : Energy diretcly transformed into work done accelerating craft.
A good energy source would be a compact nuclear reactor (i.e. submarine type) this could power a large manned exploration type mission. Or alternately you could use a nuclear isotope power source to propel a satelite sized device.
Pretty sweet eh ? No, "It's very speculative. We don't know if it'll work," from the article, this does work :)
I open source this concept to be used by all at will.
The mechanical analogue :
Imagine a metal ball on a rod attached to a second rod via a rotary joint. Spanned over the rod-to-rod joint is a linear actuator.
Ball
Rod 1
Rod 2
Rod 2 is achored to the space ships hull.
Now imagine the actuator is unpowered and you swing the ball around. This results in a strong centrifugal force outwards. The rods are pulled into a collinear arrangement.
Now as the ball is swung around, the actuator actuates to decrease the angle between the rods from 180 degrees to , say, 90 degrees. In the quadrant of the rotation in which this happens the centrifugal force is reduced as the distance from the ball to the anchor point is reduced. Note that the angular speed of rotation stays constant.
This results in an occilatory centifugal force acting on the hull. The weakening and strenthening of the centrifugal force will occur at specific angular swing positions. Now to remove the lateral ocilatory effect on the hull you need a second ball and rod arrangements rotating as a mirror image to the first one :
Ball _________ Ball
Rod 1 _ Rod 1
Rod 2 _______ Rod 2
(Note : lines just there to force correct word spacing.)
Note that altough I cant draw this, both balls are achored to the same point on the hull and they rorate in opposite directions.
If this is done properly you have a osilating backwards and forwards thrust (no lateral thrust) on the hull BUT the foward comnponent is greater so there is a NET forward thrust.
Lastly you add another pair of balls and rotate them in such a way with the first two to cancel out the reverse thrust so that a NET CONSTANT FORWARD thrust is produced.
i.e. Energy in (nuclear power pack ?) = Work done in accelerating space ship.
Note no fuel is consumed ! Direct conversion of energy into work done in accelerating spaceship.
The acceleation will be low (cant take off in Earth's atmosphere !) but in space the constant accleration can eventually result in enormous speeds.
This is a clunky mechanical way of doing it, which works ( I've built a prototype !).
A more elegant implemetation is to cause four magetic metal balls to follow the same paths described above using external magnetic fields.
Again no fuel consumption : Energy diretcly transformed into work done accelerating craft.
A good energy source would be a compact nuclear reactor (i.e. submarine type) this could power a large manned exploration type mission. Or alternately you could use a nuclear isotope power source to propel a satelite sized device.
Pretty sweet eh ? No, "It's very speculative. We don't know if it'll work," from the article, this does work
I open source this concept to be used by all at will.
