starship-design: Stellar drive?

[kgstar@most.fw.hac.com (Kelly Starks x7066 MS 10-39)]

Stumbled across a web site in Britian describing an idea for a web site
using asymetric micrpulses of magnatism.  Its eiather very clever, or
stuipid; and I'm to tired to figure out which.  URL and cliping from intro
follows.

Kelly

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http://www.stellar.demon.co.uk/stellar.htm





A simple way to explain how a Stellar Drive works is to take two
electromagnets made from copper wire with an air core and glue them back to
back with an intervening plastic rod between them. The importance of not
using an iron core (normally used to enhance the electromagnet's strength)
is that with an air core, the electromagnets are not magnetic when switched
off. Using copper for the wire and plastic for the intervening rod makes
the whole assembly non-magnetic. If the electromagnets have magnetic cores,
or if there are any significant magnetic materials nearby, the device will
not work at the expected efficiencies. Figure 1 below shows the arrangement
of the non-magnetic electromagnets and the plastic rod.

       When electromagnet one switches on, its field will propagate to
electromagnet two. Before the field reaches electromagnet two,
electromagnet one is switched off. Thus we get a travelling pulse of
magnetic pulse that would eventually sweep past electromagnet two at the
speed of light. As the pulse from electromagnet one arrives at
electromagnet two, electromagnet two is switched on. Electromagnet two's
field interacts with the passing field from electromagnet one and
electromagnet two would be attracted to electromagnet one. (The arguments
remain consistent whether the force is attraction or repulsion.)



                                                      Figure 1

       While the field from electromagnet one is interacting with
electromagnet two, the rod feels a unidirectional push towards
electromagnet one. In free space, the rod and electromagnet assembly would
be accelerated unidirectionally.

       The situation is true while the field from electromagnet one is
passing over electromagnet two. To create the equal and opposite force, the
magnetic field from electromagnet two races to electromagnet one to
interact with it to create the equal and opposite. But here it encounters a
problem. Electromagnet one is switched off and since there is nothing
magnetic there it cannot interact with it and so it must pass through it
unaffected.

       The consequence of this escaping field is that we have created local
momentum. Once all the fields have escaped the device, there is no way of
cancelling the locally generated momentum.

       After the field from electromagnet two has passed through
electromagnet one, the momentum generating cycle can be repeated.
Electromagnet one is pulsed on and off again and as the field passes
through electromagnet two, it is also pulsed on and off again generating
more momentum. In theory, the device can keep on accelerating forever if
there was a method for energizing the coils on and off in the incredibly
short periods needed for the interactions to be observable.

       Because magnetic fields travel at the speed of light c, the
energizing method must be very quick so as to generate the appropriate
pulsed magnetic fields.

       The device has no moving parts, yet it generates thrust. If it were
to be rotated clockwise ninety degrees and placed on a weighting machine
(that has no magnetic components nearby) we would see the weight of the
device lessening . The weight loss would be proportional to the amount of
power fed to the electromagnets. Changing the phase at which the
electromagnets are turned on and off and the frequency with which they are
turned on and off will also register proportional thrust. The mark space
ratio of the rectangular wave used to turn the electromagnets would also
affect the thrust generation characteristics of the drive.


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Kelly Starks                    Phone: (219) 429-7066    Fax: (219) 429-6859
Sr. Systems Engineer                                     Mail Stop: 10-39
Hughes defense Communications
1010 Production Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46808-4106
Email:  kgstar@most.fw.hac.com
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