Re: starship-design: Zero-Point Momentum

[kyle <stk@sunherald.infi.net>]

Ken Wharton wrote:
> 
> Kyle,
> 
> I agree that future spaceship designs may work by extracting energy from
> the vacuum and using that energy to shoot reaction mass out of the ship.
> Momentum is conserved, and we seem to violating conservation of energy,
> but that's okay because there's zero-point energy we're tapping.
> 
> However, these proposals of yours (#1, #2, and #3) seem to imply that we
> can violate conservation of momentum as well, by pulling momentum out of
> the ZPE??  Remember, as far as the ZPE theory does, there is no zero-
> point momentum.  If you extract momentum from vacuum, does that mean you
> accelerate space in the opposite direction?  This is highly speculative
> (orders of magnitude more so than ZPE, to use a comparison).  If we can
> tap the ZPE it's much more likely we'll do it on a energy, rather than a
> momentum basis.

I can't take credit for 1 2 and 3. They were NASA's ideas.
> 
> Well, okay, so maybe I've written an entire science fiction novel based
> on space-time inertia, but that doesn't mean I believe it...
> 
> >> All the NASA work I've seen on these basically says that none of them
> >> are useful for spacecraft engineering at this time, even the ones that
> >> aren't in violent contradiction with known physics.
> >
> >I generally agree, but still say we should work on them.
> 
> Again, this group CAN'T work on them.  If you have the resources to do
> so, we'll be more than happy to take your experimental results into
> account.  But what these ideas are really going to need is a better
> understanding of the fundamental physics, and although anyone can come up
> with a theory, I think the only ones that this group can (in good
> conscience) take into account are ones that are plausible enough to be
> published in a peer-reviewed scientific Journal.  (In which some rather
> far-out ideas are regularly voiced, believe it or not...)  

They actually were published in a NASA journal, and so was Alcubierre's
theory. If no one here will speculate on this, can you tell me where I
can find a group that will?

> I sincerely hope you will work toward a degree in physics and publicly contribute to
> this ever-evolving field.  I have no doubt that it will be someone like
> you who makes the next major breakthrough in our fundamental
> understanding of the universe.

Thank You

Kyle Mcallister