NASA PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Courtesy of Marc G. Millis
NASA Lewis Research Center
Marc G. Millis, "Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Research Program," NASA Technical Memorandum 107381, prepared for the Space Technology and Applications International Forum, Jan. 1997.
AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT
In 1996, a team of government, university and industry researchers proposed a program to seek the ultimate breakthroughs in space transportation: propulsion that requires no propellant mass, propulsion that can approach and, if possible, circumvent light speed, and breakthrough methods of energy production to power such devices. This Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program, managed by Lewis Research Center, is one part of a comprehensive, long range Advanced Space Transportation Plan managed by Marshall Space Flight Center. Because the breakthrough goals are beyond existing science, a main emphasis of this program is to establish metrics and ground rules to produce near-term credible progress toward these incredible possibilities. An introduction to the emerging scientific possibilities from which such solutions can be sought is also presented.
Marc G. Millis. "The Challenge to Create the Space Drive," NASA Tech. Mem. # 107289, prepared for the Interstellar Flight Symposium, May 1996.
AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT
To travel to our neighboring stars as practically as envisioned by science fiction, breakthroughs in science are required. One of these breakthroughs is to discover a self-contained means of propulsion that requires no propellant. To chart a path toward such a discovery, seven hypothetical space drives are presented to illustrate the specific unsolved challenges and associated research objectives toward this ambition. One research objective is to discover a means to asymmetrically interact with the electromagnetic fluctuations of the vacuum.
Another is to develop a physics that describes inertia, gravity, or the properties of spacetime as a function of electromagnetics that leads to using electromagnetic technology for inducing propulsive forces. Another is to determine if negative mass exists or if its properties can be synthesized. An alternative approach that covers the possibility that negative mass might not exist is to develop a formalism of Mach's Principle or reformulate aether concepts to lay a foundation for addressing reaction forces and conservation of momentum with space drives.
[We have written Marc Millis and suggested that the high-density charge cluster technology could provide power and that torsion fields might provide communication at superluminal speeds. Ed.]
www.padrak.com/ine/NEN_4_12_4.html
Apr. 27, 1997.