We have continuously adapted and overcome any difficulties as a scientific community when it comes to space exploration. Yet, despite these achievements, there has always been a seemingly impossible task that we only dreamed about light speed
We’ve
found a way to peer into the cosmos, we’ve landed a man on the moon, we’ve sent
probes beyond our solar system, we’ve done all these remarkable feats of
engineering in a couple of decades, but despite these achievements, there has
always been a seemingly impossible task that we only dreamed about, light speed
We can research exoplanets and send probes into the
limitless beyond. Still, we’ve never been able to glimpse the wonders of the universe up
close, although the nearest galactic neighbor, Proxima Centauri b, is 4.25
light-years away.
We have continuously adapted and overcome any
difficulties as a scientific community when it comes to space exploration. Yet,
despite these achievements, there has always been a seemingly impossible task
that we only dreamed about light speed
We’ve
found a way to peer into the cosmos, we’ve landed a man on the moon, we’ve sent
probes beyond our solar system, we’ve done all these remarkable feats of
engineering in a couple of decades, but despite these achievements, there has
always been a seemingly impossible task that we only dreamed about, light speed
We can research exoplanets and send probes into the
limitless beyond. Still, we’ve never been able to glimpse the wonders of the universe up
close, although the nearest galactic neighbor, Proxima Centauri b, is 4.25
light-years away.
There
would take us 6 300 years to reach it with present technology. The
awful fact is that everything worth understanding in our cosmos, or so we
assumed, is beyond our lifespan. NASA just announced that their new rocket engine
could travel at 99 percent the speed of light.
If
this is true a new era of space travel has begun. The speed of light is
primarily used as the most preferred unit to measure distance in space. To be
clear, the speed of light is estimated to be 299 million 792 458 meters per
second, a speed that seems only possible in Star Wars, but if you think about
it, the speed of sound seemed nearly impossible to reach at one point as well.
To put that into perspective, if the new frontiers
spacecraft, which reached Pluto at a speed of 58 000 kilometers per hour, were
utilized to fly to Alpha Centauri, it would take no less than 78 000 years. It
takes us a week to go to the moon, so picture attempting to get to another
star.
If
we truly want to explore space and be true pioneers, we need a better means of
traveling. Traveling at the speed of light would take us to the moon in a
fraction of a second to Mars in a few
hours, and finally to the stars above, but speed is only one of the problems
we’d face; we’d also have to worry about fuel and how much of it we’d need to
navigate through the cosmos, which is where the problem lies.
Not only would this light engine need to be fast,
consuming a significant amount of fuel, but it would also need to be able to
conserve enough energy to last for years. While a fuelless engine that is not
an entirely new concept, previous attempts at such machines have been made.
In
the late 1970s a US inventor named Robert Cook patented an engine that
converted centrifugal force into linear motion. In the early 2000s, a British
inventor named Roger Sawyer proposed them drive, claiming to convert trapped
microwaves into thrust.
The
m drive, in particular, was dubbed the impossible engine because it is
essentially a container with microwaves bouncing around inside it, supposedly
moving due to these bouncy microwaves. Nobody truly understands how it’s meant
to function since the explanations go beyond our present knowledge of physics.
It’s possible that our understanding of physics is
flawed or that testing this device will reveal some previously unknown laws of
physics. In 2001, some research groups claimed to have measured a net force
coming from their devices, but what they measured had such a small effect that
it couldn’t move a piece of paper. This inefficiency will become a recurring
problem for all these would-be impolite people.
Since
the prototype’s inception, scientists have discovered that the inefficiency of
these engines outweighs their utility. To generate any significant thrust in
the helical engine, we’d have to build a mega structure the size of a
skyscraper.
However,
David Burns, a NASA engineer who has been working on this problem in his own
time, claims to have created an engine idea that can potentially accelerate to
99 percent the speed of light. Amazing! That’s true, but it gets better: this
engine wouldn’t even need propellant to do this.
On
October 11th, 2019, the engine was suggested to NASA and made public. He calls
it the helix engine in his article, and he goes into great detail on how this
futuristic ship can be pushed into orbit using in-space engines that don’t
require any fuel. So, how does this new helical engine work?
The
helical engine exploits a flaw in Einstein’s Indian
theory by speeding a loop of ions to near light speed and then adjusting their
velocity and mass according to the rules of relativity, allowing
the engine to go ahead without needing to fire anything out behind it. This is
where things get a little tricky.
According
to Burns, the engine may be understood by looking at the diagram below.
Consider putting a ring in a box that bounces in one way while recoiling in the
other direction; when the ring within the box reaches the end, springing
backward, the recoil direction of the box is also modified.
The
box would wriggle back and forth in normal circumstances, but because both the
box and the ring are traveling at the speed of light, by the time the ring
reaches the end of the box, its mass will have increased as it travels faster
while bouncing back, resulting in forward momentum.
While
this engine would not require propellant, it would necessitate the use of a
particle accelerator as well as ion particles. The spaceship is supposed to
launch into space with any fuel by utilizing the mass shifting phenomena near
light speed.
Technically,
since the engine is stated to travel at the speed of light, this may work to
describe the rules of physics. However, the moment David Burns’ paper was
published, it caused a massive uproar among the entire space community.
Some have claimed that the very foundation of this new engine may be violating
the laws of physics. In contrast, others argue that the engine concept is
excellent but only on paper and that it would be impossible to build an engine
large enough and powerful enough to work.
Both
the drive and Robert Cook’s engine were never successfully demonstrated, and
both violated the conservation laws. The concept of conservation of momentum is
a fundamental physics principle that asserts that in the absence of any
physical forces, a system’s momentum remains constant.
With
that said, a helical engine should not be viable, but there’s always the particular
relativity loophole. Unlike the other machines, the helical engine takes
advantage of special relativity, which
states that when an object approaches the speed of light, it accumulates mass.
Burns
envisions replacing the box and ring in his picture with a helix-shaped
accelerator that generates a net push in a selected direction. The engine would
then accelerate the ions in the loop to a moderate relativistic speed before
varying their velocities to alter and change their mass.
The
engine produces thrust by moving the ions back and forth in the direction of
movement. The engine would have no moving parts except for the ions going in a
vacuum line while being confined inside electric and magnetic fields. The
concept has yet to be reviewed and tested, and many are already debating
whether or not it will be a success.
If
it shows promise and proves to succeed, many-core physical laws will be called
into question. Others argue that it will not necessarily defy the laws but
rather expand our understanding of the laws of physics. Before you become too
thrilled, bear in mind that there will always be some challenges with anything
new, especially anything that hasn’t been done before.
When
it comes to the NASA helical engine there are many things to consider. The bare
minimum size of the machine to work would have to be 200 meters long and 12
meters wide, which would make it unsuitable for space travel.
It
would also have to be extremely powerful, requiring nearly 165 megawatts of
power to generate a single neutron of thrust, which is a lot of effort. Simply
put, it is an inefficient engine that would require a frictionless environment
of space to reach any meaningful speeds.
Still,
if there was enough time and power, this machine could use Einstein’s special
relativity to reach near light speed. As of right now, the helical engine is
still just on paper, but it certainly opens up new avenues.
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