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".




--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net
IT Disaster Response -
https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Resp...dp/1484221834/