Felber relativistic repulsive effect achieves relatively ( <-groan) easy near light speed propul

www.technologyreview.com...

a obscure relativistic effect might allow out of proportion speed boosts to a relativistic payload or rocket. There are two ways to harness the effect.

1. a relativistic particle beam bootstraps a payloads velocity in the direction of the beam travel. it is not a rocket. rockets exhaust is in the direction you came from; not the direction you want to go.

2. a low end relativistic payload or rocket approaches a stationary object such as a planet moon or star in a survivable trajectory and is forcibly bounced off the repulsive effect force field without colliding with the more massive star planet etc. imparting a relativistic gain in speed.

this is not a standard gravity assist. but it is sort of analogous to a gravity tractor as envisioned to move earth bound collision hazard asteroids.

if this effect is real and exploitable it would be an easy way to get to viable interstellar travel speeds. though the planet bounce variant would require you first get to low end of relativistic speed which is currently beyond our capabilities anyway.

stormbringer1701
www.technologyreview.com...

a obscure relativistic effect might allow out of proportion speed boosts to a relativistic payload or rocket. There are two ways to harness the effect.

1. a relativistic particle beam bootstraps a payloads velocity in the direction of the beam travel. it is not a rocket. rockets exhaust is in the direction you came from; not the direction you want to go.

2. a low end relativistic payload or rocket approaches a stationary object such as a planet moon or star in a survivable trajectory and is forcibly bounced off the repulsive effect force field without colliding with the more massive star planet etc. imparting a relativistic gain in speed.

this is not a standard gravity assist. but it is sort of analogous to a gravity tractor as envisioned to move earth bound collision hazard asteroids.

if this effect is real and exploitable it would be an easy way to get to viable interstellar travel speeds. though the planet bounce variant would require you first get to low end of relativistic speed which is currently beyond our capabilities anyway.

edit on 28-2-2014 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)

Cool thread! I myself have always wondered about if there is a way to "Pull" a spaceship through Space. It only makes sense since Space/the Universe is so massive that with rocket technology you'd never see it all in a million lifetimes. Your repulsive effect idea is similar to what I was thinking, except my idea was more of a slingshot effect where by enacting a pull of some type, whether it be gravitational, etc, Space would provide the opposite effect and pull back, thus, pulling the Spaceship.

I'm just an armchair scientist so please don't get offended you real scientists out there on ATS.

heh. I'm not a scientist and this certainly wasn't my idea. but your type of idea is called a space drive and there are some real possibilities for one or the other of them to work. like using quantum back pressure to cause the mouth of a worm hole to move in the direction you want it to go. things like that.

For argument's sake...

a relativistic particle should also repel a stationary mass. He says that this effect could be exploited to propel an initially stationary mass to a good fraction of the speed of light.

Could this not also explain dark matter / energy?

abecedarian
For argument's sake...

a relativistic particle should also repel a stationary mass. He says that this effect could be exploited to propel an initially stationary mass to a good fraction of the speed of light.

Could this not also explain dark matter / energy?

maybe dark energy but i don't think it has anything to do with dark matter. those are two different things.

but i just had an epiphany of good old fashioned fringey gooey science so i think i am going to go off and post another thread on another topic

All somebody needs to do is invent a way to magnify the carrier beams emmisions / disruptions at the very front end of the beam and use that energy to tie the ship to the point of emmision. Simlpe. Where's my notepad !

edit: SImple! (Dyslexic)

Like a dolphin space surfing on a bow wave.

I thought about this... had a beer... then thought some more...

Imagine this. A soliton propulsion model with your relativistic laser... (Soliton Wiki definiki) For this purpose, think of a smoke ring... (notice that as the smoke ring travels, it essentially spins from the inside out, in the direction of travel... that's important...)

Combine that with the Coanda effect... (Coanda effect Wiki definiki), and you may have something.

Construct a toroidal or doughnut shaped craft, clad in a material capable of bending photons around itself in a fluidic, Coanda effected "slip-stream"...(maybe sheathed in ionized gas... a possibility?) then fire your laser (with a beam width the same diameter as the "doughnut hole" in your soliton craft) through the hole in the direction of travel. It doesn't even have to "surf" through space-time, as space-time could essentially be wrapped around and through the craft... relativistically, in any case...

No, my avatar did not influence my doughnut idea... although... Col. Jack O'neill used to quote the Homer quite a bit (SG-1 to those not acquainted)

If someone ever builds this thing and it actually works... I'd like some credit... a footnote would be fine. A check would be better