Advances in Electromagnetic Inertia Propulsion

Paper number

IAC-06-C4.3.10

Author

Prof. Hector Brito, Instituto Universitario Aeronautico, Argentina

Coauthor

Dr. Sergio Elaskar, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and CONICET, Argentina

Year

2006

Abstract

The concept of electromagnetic (EM) fields contributing to the inertia of physical systems, and a way of manipulating them for space propulsion purposes relying on Minkowski’s energy-momentum tensor are reviewed here. Up to date experimental results using different devices with diverse thrust measurement instrumentation, indicating that “propellantless” propulsion without conventional external assistance is being achieved by means of electromagnetic inertia manipulation, are discussed and compared with similar results produced by independent research teams in U.S.A. and in Europe. 

Three lines of thrusters are presently being investigated. The first research line is based on an upgraded version of the RAMA-I thruster, equipped with a refurbished power processing unit able to deliver twice as much power than the original one. The thruster is mounted on its original thrust stand (TS-1) and thrust is measured by means of a piezoceramic strain transducer wired to a 16 bit data acquisition board, which allows for advanced data processing in both time and frequency domains. The second research line is based on a replication of a thruster being investigated elsewhere (BMW-1), where the thrust is measured by means of a high precision electronic scale, and in a planned second phase, using the TS-1 setup. Finally, the third line of research is based on RAMA-II; a thruster in the 2-5 mN thrust range, designed to overcome the main sources of potentially spurious effects. RAMA-II will be mounted on a stand rotating on magnetic bearings so that electromagnetic interaction with the surroundings, especially the geomagnetic fields, will have zero time average along the circular motion. A laser vibration sensing device based on a variable density filter-photoelectric cell arrangement, intended to be used in the three lines of research, is also under development for accurate thrust measurements using TS-2, a thrust stand originally developed for the qualification tests of pulsed plasma thrusters. 

The results obtained to date are positive and confirm those previously published for RAMA-I, while being much lower than those reported as related to BMW-1. These results are in contradiction with the null results predicted by the “standard” formulation of global EM forces because the system momentum apparently is not conserved. On the other hand, they are shown to be consistent with an alternative formulation of Minkowski’s EM force density, which correctly predicts former peer-reviewed experimental results. 

Abstract document

IAC-06-C4.3.10.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-06-C4.3.10.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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