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I just read about the failure of one idea to have propulsion without propellant.

Here is mine.

A vacuum is full of pairs of particles being created out of nothing for a very short time.  Basically uncertainty principle that lets you borrow some energy for a short period of time.

Well you just chuck these out the back of your space ship.

Of course it does not really help in that you are chucking energy out the back, which is reducing your remaining mass.

In fact you can just send the energy out directly as a beam of light for propulsion.

So the issue is not really about having no propellant, but one of what gives you the best efficiency.

Martin

# posted by martinW @ 9:57 pm