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Of the options proposed the most promising propellantless thrust mechanism for space travel? As of now, which one has been tested the most and is most likely t
by nautilus12 7y ago
Of the options proposed the most promising propellantless thrust mechanism for space travel? As of now, which one has been tested the most and is most likely to become our first choice. Could it enable interstellar travel?
- larkeith 7y agoUnless I've missed anything, the only known, proven to actually work, propellantless thrust system are solar sails (and various beam-powered equivalents). Even nuclear photonic rockets slowly use up reaction mass. However, ion drives are already fairly mature and perfectly viable for interstellar travel, if you're willing to wait. Sails aren't yet feasible outside the solar system (and are still in their infancy even within), but with enough power production they might be another option in the future.
- roywiggins 7y agoNone of them have been proven to actually generate anomalous thrust. The prior probability of such a thing working is so small that without dramatic evidence to the contrary, they're all nearly indistinguishably equally unlikely. That said, "EM drive" prototypes have actually been built, as have Mach-effect thrusters, etc. None of them have convincingly been shown to work, mind you. This thing just exists on paper. It's not that hard to come up with a derivation on paper that's actually subtly wrong- much easier, sometimes, than actually finding where they went wrong.