> Forward from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Akira Kawasaki) > >> [Original Message] >> From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 5/19/2006 1:36:40 PM > Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday May 19, 2006 > > WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 19 May 06 Washington, DC
> 3. BREAKTHROUGH PROPULSION: MOVING THE ROCKET'S CENTER OF MASS. > It was the goal of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Institute, > http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN97/wn081597.html . Propulsion > without a propellant. BPI never quite made it. It was some > problem with Newton's Laws of Motion I think -- the center of > mass just wouldn't budge. Maybe they gave up too soon. A > history professor at California State U., Fullerton, James > Woodward, unveiled his research into "Mach-Lorentz thrusters" at > the Future in Review conference in Coronado, CA on Wednesday. > It's like the impulse engines in Star Trek. "They put out thrust > without blowing stuff out the tailpipe," Woodward said. IMO, it is more sensible to regard natural forces as a kind of propellantless-acceleration, rather than as action-at-a-distance. Harry
