Futurology

1813 readers

242 users here now

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Although not peer reviewed or replicated, a NASA veteran claims their Propellantless Propulsion Drive, that physics says shouldn’t work, just produced enough thrust to overcome Earth’s gravity (thedebrief.org)

submitted 7 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

67 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] macarthur_park@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Note that what the mythbusters looked at was a form of ion propulsion. The high voltage on the sharp boundary of the aluminum foil repels air molecules. If you put one of those in a vacuum (or space) it wouldn’t have any thrust.

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

If you put one of those in a vacuum (or space) it wouldn’t have any thrust.

IIRC, the MythBusters did exactly that later in the episode. Unsurprisdngly, the devices produced no thrust in a vacuum chamber.