On 9/7/20 6:49 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:
On Sep/7/2020 at 11:05, Greg (Strider) Moore wrote :
wrote in message
...

Gravity, Gizmos, and a Grand Theory of Interstellar Travel:

"Woodward’s MEGA drive is different. Instead of propellant, it relies on
electricity, which in space would come from solar panels or a nuclear
reactor. His
insight was to use a stack of piezoelectric crystals and some
controversial—but he
believes plausible—physics to generate thrust. The stack of crystals,
which store
tiny amounts of energy, vibrates tens of thousands of times per
second when zapped
with electric current. Some of the vibrational frequencies harmonize
as they roll
through the device, and when the oscillations sync up in just the
right way, the
small drive lurches forward."

See:

https://www.wired.com/story/mach-eff...tellar-travel/


What are the odds of this actually working?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ic-propulsion/
is where I first read about this. (paywalled sorry).

This is one of those, "I HIGHLY doubt it'll work, but it's just close
enough to the edge of physics as we know it, it's probably worth some
cautious funding."

I think it's sort of like the proposed Alcubierre warp drive, unlikely
to actually work or be practical, but worth some investigation "just
in case".

I wouldn't put the Alcubierre warp drive in the same category. I think
one could build a working Alcubierre warp drive if one had a suitable
source negative mass exotic matter. Their is some uncertainty, but the
physics behind Alcubierre drive have a reasonable chance of being
correct. Of course finding the source of exotic matter is a problem :-)

Woodward's MEGA drive (and calmagorod's PNN) are on an opposite track.
They have all the hardware to build their gizmos, but they don't seem to
have the physics on their side.


Alain Fournier



then you don't know physics.