Hi Kyle, > 1. They do not work in hard vacuum. This has been tested many times, > Blazelabs has tested this, I have tested it, others have as well. It is > pretty well determined that they do not function in hard vacuum. In very > soft vacuums they do work, as there is still air to push around, of > course. > Around 1 - 0.1 torr, there is nothing but glow discharge. At harder > vacuums, > as the residual gas is taken away and the voltage across the electrodes > again climbs to several kV, no thrust reappears.
What was the highest potential used in the vacuum experiments? As I see it, there is a balance between the charges of the lifter and the dipole structure of the surrounding medium. It is my belief that if you are going to increase the vacuum, then you also need to increase the potential. This is not because of ion wind, but because the air molecules become dipoles with much mass, which provide a more viscous dipole medium for the charges on the lifter to operate against. My guess is that the potential needs to be increased proportional to the vacuum. So if you double the vacuum, you need to double the potential. As I understand it, the hard vacuum experiments did not include an increase in potential. So naturally, if the medium is less dense the lifter has less to pull against and needs more potential. Dave
