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Reactionless Drives Explained

Reactionless drives, wich are hypothetical propulsion systems, claim to achieve thrust without expelling mass or propellant. With this they are challenging the established principles of Newton's third law. The primary objective of building these propulsion systems is to revolutionize space travel by eliminating the reliance on traditional propellants. In this Postsome of the most interesting reactionless drives are presented.

Helical Engine

A NASA paper written in 2019 introduced the Helical Engine, where ions are accelerated in a closed loop to relativistic speeds. By slightly varying ion velocity in an electric field, their momentum in forward motion is altered. The ions bounce against the forward wall with higher speeds than at the back wall, which produces thrust as they move back and forth along the direction of travel.

Mach Effect Thruster

Physicist James Woodward proposed the Mach Effect Thruster within the context of general relativity and Mach's principle. This propulsion system manipulates the inertia of a system using an oscillating mass, by this  an asymmetric field is created. Thrust is generated through this asymmetric mass fluctuation, therefore it occurs without expelling mass or propellant. One can see in the simulation below that the mass is accelrated multiple times in the downward direction. This is claimed to produce the thrust.

Cannae Drive

Named after the USS CANNON from "Star Trek," the Cannae Drive operates by utilizing a resonant cavity with a tapered end. Radio frequency (RF) or microwave radiation is introduced into the cavity, which causes thrust imbalances within the cavity and leading to a net thrust. In the simulation one can see that the particales are reflected from the tapered end and are hitting the top surface more often which should produce the thrust in this drive.

Discussion

Despite the interesting concepts, reactionless drives face skepticism and criticism for seeming to violate fundamental principles of physics. The lack of robust experimental evidence supporting their feasibility adds to the skepticism. Nevertheless, scientists persist in exploring and conducting experiments to either validate or debunk these reactionless propulsion systems. If proven viable, reactionless drives could indeed revolutionize space travel by eliminating the need for traditional propellants.

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