I've suggested (& published in 21 journal papers) a new theory called quantised inertia (or MiHsC) that assumes that inertia is caused by horizons damping quantum fields. It predicts galaxy rotation & lab thrusts without any dark stuff or adjustment. My University webpage is here, I've written a book called Physics from the Edge and I'm on twitter as @memcculloch. Most of my content is at patreon now: here

Saturday 19 May 2012

Launching with physics instead of chemistry.


I've just seen the attempted launch of the Falcon 9 rocket (their next try will be on Tuesday) and I think SpaceX is the most exciting thing to come out of the USA since the Apollo program. The UK's SKYLON project looks potentially bold too and I wish these, the consistent Russian manned space program, the growing new Chinese program, and other space programs the best of luck, but seeing launches like this I always think there must be a way to launch to space without chemistry, and maybe there is using MiHsC:

If inertia is due to Unruh radiation then it should be possible to modify the inertia of objects by interfering with, or enhancing, the Unruh radiation they see. Then, as their inertia changes, the conservation of momentum should cause them to move. I proposed one test of this at the end of this paper (published in EPL, 90, 29001, 2010, see the section just before the Conclusions):

Since then I have tested MiHsC on some experiments done by Tajmar (the Tajmar effect), by assuming (as above) that the sudden acceleration of an object (a ring in this case) near to a gyroscope changes the Unruh waves it sees, and therefore its inertia, causing it to move to conserve momentum. MiHsC predicted the anomalous observations very well: see this paper (published in EPL, 95, 39002, 2011). I discuss the idea of launching using inertia here (unfortunately, this abstract has been deleted, email me if you want a copy).

Of course, getting funding to test this is going to be difficult, but I think it would be worth it, since it could provide a new method of launching without dangerous high explosives.

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