New quantum propeller may change satellite propulsion for EVAH

[guischmitd]

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/nasa-reveals-new-impossible-engine-can-change-space-t-1614549987?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Like any respected KSP Engineer, I did some research on my backyard and found a pretty clover, but nothing about this tech, so I had to go to that weird place some people call "~the interwebs~" and what not:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster

So yeah, too complex for me, but HEY! maybe someone here can help us understand it!

My only conclusion so far is:

Quantum Mechanics = :cool::cool:

When can we see one of these in-game? HAHAHAHA to heck with them ion thrusters!

yours truly,

A fellow Kerbonaut

[SkyRender]

And here I was just theorizing about "reactionless" drive systems not that long ago... That's an interesting way of doing it, to be certain. It remains to be seen if it will be practical in actual space flight, of course.

[Aragosnat]

Kind of reminds me of what I thought the Ion Drives should have been.

[Grover]

Shouldnt be too hard to mod one of these into game... just create a thrustrr that has ridiculously low thrust and only consumes ElectricCharge... right?

[Rime Pendragon]

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/nasa-tests-em-drive/

[Ravenchant]

Ah, quantum mechanics. The dreams stuff is made of.

Until multiple independent research groups get the same results, I'd be wary. Remember the FTL neutrino and meteorite microbes shticks?

[brianorca]

That's what the recent news is about. The first test was a Chinese team. The second test was by a NASA team. Still, more tests would be better, especially if they can scale it past the few dozen millinewtons they got so far.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

Quantum mechanics gives me headaches lol.

The whole idea of particles spontaneously appearing then disappearing seems counter-intuitive to, well, everything.

[CaptainArchmage]

If you get Interstellar Quest, there’s a Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster in there. I think it showed up either on Interstellar Quest 2 or one of Scott Manley’s videos.

There’s a difference between the Q-thruster and EM-thruster, in particular the designers attribute the Q-thruster to the quantum vacuum and the EM-thruster to relativity. However, NASA believes that the EM-thruster (which they tested) also produces thrust due to Quantum Vacuum, which may explain why the “null test†device still produced thrust.

Edited August 2, 2014 by CaptainArchmage

[Streetwind]

Did we really need a third fourth thread about this...?

It's not that, considering all of them are in the first 10 threads of this forum...

[vger]

Did we really need a third fourth thread about this...?

It's not that, considering all of them are in the first 10 threads of this forum...

It's just that darned exciting. Kinda like the way a forum looks 5 seconds into the New Year.

[Streetwind]

Actually, I just noticed this thread was moved here from General Discussion. Guess this goes on a mod's hat for not merging instead