[extropy-chat] unidirectional thrust

[Damien Broderick]

At 06:05 AM 3/11/2005 -0800, Mike Lorrey wrote:

> > What's the NASA patent about? It must be very frustrating that they
> > patented it if you were the one who thought of it.
>
>I have shown in the past how all devices described essentially work to
>relativistically cheat Mach's Principle. Despite this, I have gotten
>nothing but scorn from this list, such that eight years later, NASA is
>finally starting to do what I could have been developing as a private
>space enterprise back then. But I let the voices here, who all
>professed to be much more educated and wise than I, tell me I was a
>fool.

As I recall you were circulating a document under strict provisions of 
confidence that described this proposal. If you had it documented prior to 
NASA's patent, maybe that allows you to claim priority and a slice of the 
action? [not a patent lawyer]

>http://l2.espacenet.com/dips/bnsviewer?CY=ep&LG=en&DB=EPD&PN=US6317310&ID=US+++6317310B1+I+
>
>Which describes the following devices which have been replicated by a
>French researcher:
>http://jlnlabs.imars.com/lifters/act/html/omptv1.htm

As far as I can see, this nice little machine makes things go around and 
around, not leap into the air and up into the sky. Conservation of this & 
that, you know. [not a physicist]

However. the Purdue university paper at 
http://www.geocities.com/ekpworld/doc/EKP_satellite_maneuvering.doc seems 
to be saying that it *will* generate a thrust as well as a rotation:

<the amount of thrust generated by this effect depends on the amount of 
voltage applied across the capacitor, the surface area of the electrodes, 
distance between electrodes, material between electrodes, and the geometry 
of the electrodes. All of these factors, except the applied voltage, create 
a non-linear electric field gradient, which is believed to be an underlying 
principle that describes this effect. It is also believed that what is 
being observed might be a coupling between electricity and gravity, similar 
to that between electricity and magnetism. >

However however, frustratingly,

<it was deemed unnecessary to try to take readings within a vacuum since 
the observed and experimental currents are off by orders of magnitude and 
not enough to produce any meaningful effect during Electrokinetic 
Propulsion experiments. >

Damien Broderick