A NASA research paper on the prospects of a 'breakthrough' propulsion system

This paper from NASA's Glenn research laboratory discusses the prospects for a 'breakthrough' type of space propulsion. It summarizes efforts that looked into things similar to 'warp drives' and other science fictionish stuff:
www.nidsci.org...

When I've had the time to read it more thoroughly I'll come back and comment on it... but, after just reading the first few pages, i have to say that it looks like a cool paper...

www.grc.nasa.gov...

This is the site that that PDF was created from, which contains more info on the subject.

I just finsihed reading the NASA paper... it's a summary of research that's been done to date. As one might expect, most experiments that looked into exotic ideas had null results.. BUT several didn't. Of particular interest are the experiments that looked into the highly controversial issue of 'Zero Point Energy'. Rather than just looking into the issue as one that was about energy... the question was raised as to whether "it might become possible to alter inertial properties through some electromagnetic means." You'll have to read the paper to see how THAT weird idea came up...

I suggest that anyone interested in space travel download this doc and pay close attention to sections:
3.1.8
3.2.2
3.2.5
3.2.6
3.3.3
and 3.3.4

Thanks for the heads up OIMD. Haven't got do much more than scan it, but it looks interesting...and I will be watching

It's really just a summary of work that had already been done... I think the valuable part of what i linked to, actually, was the works cited section.

i just read the paper...there were some highlights but it seems like nasa gives up and dismiss ideas if they dont get any results after a few experiments, for instance the podkletnov experiment...in my eyes this and the electromagnitic interia ideas are the hottest topics to pursue for near future applications.

I think the problem they had with the plodkletnov stuff was that his original work wasn't documented to the degree that anyone else could duplicate his work.