nyrath,
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar
Aaron_DeVries,
@Aaron_DeVries@mastodon.social avatar

@nyrath the closest I feel we could get is a photon drive. But a Black body photon drive has terrible thrust, and an antimatter photon drive uses propellant. Only options I can see for a true propellantless drive is swimming in spacetime or creating gravitational gradients. But creating gravitational gradients that would result in falling forward is firmly in the "and then a miracle happens" portion of the equation.

isaackuo,
@isaackuo@spacey.space avatar

@Aaron_DeVries @nyrath

There are also weird possibilities related to neutrinos, dark matter, and/or dark energy.

tkinias,
@tkinias@historians.social avatar

@nyrath
I saw the banner image (the Exodus advert) first, before my brain registered the headline, and I was briefly confused and wondered if somebody had hijacked your account.

Pretty sure if your account ever posts “propellantless drives are practical spaceship propulsion” content we know you are in danger.

nyrath,
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

@tkinias 'Pretty sure if your account ever posts “propellantless drives are practical spaceship propulsion” content we know you are in danger.'

Absolutely! You got that right.

RogerBW,
@RogerBW@emacs.ch avatar

@nyrath @tkinias "Also spacecraft should be designed for horizontal flight and my new house guests are not holding me hostage."

Hcobb,
@Hcobb@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath What was the year when breaking (bad) physics switched from perpetual motion to space drives? (Was there an interregnum when the quacks called for time travel instead?)

isaackuo,
@isaackuo@spacey.space avatar

@Hcobb @nyrath

Hmm ... Dean Drive and also Eric Laithwaite ...

Somewhere around 1960?

michael_w_busch,
@michael_w_busch@mastodon.online avatar

@nyrath I see that you have found some of the contents of my spam folder.

nyrath,
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

@michael_w_busch

Why spam? It's true. The bogus science of propellantless thrusters is like the flat Earth theory: it refuses to die. No matter how many times it is utterly debunked.

Which is a sorry testimony to the abysmal state of basic scientific education in the modern world.

green_bens,
@green_bens@mastodon.green avatar

@nyrath It would be really cool if these reactionless drives worked but unless the laws of physics are utterly wrong, they’re equivalent to a light in terms of thrust.

nyrath,
@nyrath@spacey.space avatar

@green_bens

Agreed. The same as a photon drive. Three-hundred freaking megawatts for one lousy newton of thrust. Talk about energy hog!

60sRefugee,
@60sRefugee@spacey.space avatar

@nyrath @green_bens On the other hand that's not a lot of mass equivalent.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • ethstaker
  • DreamBathrooms
  • modclub
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • khanakhh
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • mdbf
  • provamag3
  • tacticalgear
  • tester
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • everett
  • cisconetworking
  • cubers
  • megavids
  • normalnudes
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines