News Mustafa's Space Drive: An Egyptian Student's Invention

[sorindafabico]

Remember the name, because you might see it again: Aisha Mustafa, a 19-year-old Egyptian physics student, patented a new type of propulsion system for spacecraft that uses cutting edge quantum physics instead of thrusters.

(...)

Mustafa invented a way of tapping this quantum effect via what's known as the dynamic Casimir effect. This uses a "moving mirror" cavity, where two very reflective very flat plates are held close together, and then moved slightly to interact with the quantum particle sea. It's horribly technical, but the end result is that Mustafa's use of shaped silicon plates similar to those used in solar power cells results in a net force being delivered. A force, of course, means a push or a pull and in space this equates to a drive or engine.
In terms of space propulsion, this is amazing. Most forms of spacecraft rely on the rocket principle to work: Some fuel is made energetic and then thrust out of an engine, pushing the rocket forward. It's tricky stuff to get right, particularly on Earth, which is why we shouldn't be surprised SpaceX's recent launch stopped at the critical moment due to a problem with one of its chemical rocket engines. For in-space maneuvering, many different types of rocket are used, but even exotic ones like ion drives (shown in a NASA image above) need fuel. The only space drive that doesn't involve hauling fuel and complex systems into orbit is a solar sail. And Mustafa's invention can, rudimentarily, be compared to a solar sail...because it doesn't need "fuel" as such, and exerts just the tiniest push compared to the thundery flames of SpaceX's rockets. It's potential is enormous--because of its mechanical simplicity and reliability it could make satellite propulsion lighter, cheaper, and thus indirectly lower the cost of space missions of all sorts.

(...)

Aisha's invention is so promising that her university's staff aided with a patent application. She intends to study the design further in the hope of testing it out for real in space, but as the OnIslam.net site points out she notes that there's no funding for a department of space science and this prevents important research being carried out in strife-ridden Egypt.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1837966/...n-egyptian-students-quantum-physics-invention

 

[Urwumpe]

Sounds like Maxwells Demon warmed up again.

 

[Loru]

Ok - I can roughly understand Cassimir effect but I can't imagine how it would propel spacecraft?

 

[T.Neo]

Reactionless drive... nonsense?

 

[n72.75]

Reactionless drive... nonsense?

Some things appear to be reaction-less when you project them into lower dimensions.

 

[Keatah]

Question is how much thrust this can produce.

 

[Frogisis]

It sounds more like some kind of "vacuum sail" than another Dean Drive. Sorta like a photon sail in reverse, radiating off-brand Hawking Radiation in just one direction...or something? Where's the requisite "tradeoff" though? A black hole loses mass, so would the plates erode through annihilation or something? Or is that used up in accelerating the "moving mirror" in the first place?

I dunno, it doesn't sound too completely crazy, maybe it'd have a niche for some kinds of missions.

 

[Jarvitä]

OK, I get it, it's "terribly technical", but where is the paper itself? Hard to judge a book by its cover (or a populist press release).

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

There're some higher level discussion (1600+ posts!) on propellantless field propulsion here, but they are beyond my physics level, so... :shrug:

 

[sorindafabico]

I tried to google the paper but I haven't found it, maybe because it's in arab (if it really exists). After this, I'm not discard this of being a hoax, even I had read it in some websites I usually trust...

 

[RisingFury]

Some things appear to be reaction-less when you project them into lower dimensions.

Really? Can you provide an example?

I'll reserve judgement on the drive itself, but my gut says the guy forgot to take something into account.

 

[jedidia]

Dean Machine MkII?

 

[Urwumpe]

I find the "moving mirror" aspect is the weakness. Casimir pressure is reaction-free, since both plates are attracted by the same force per area. This means, regardless how you move two plates, they should always be without net force.

Now, if you define one way to move two plates so they emit a particle as radiation by moving the plates, the effect should still be neutral since you have two plates there. Any way to make it directional sounds a lot like Maxwells demon then.

It would be more fun to ask if the Casimir effect could be used for climbing the tether of a space elevator.

 

[Zachstar]

So why do we care about this?

some comms birds are already using electric propulsion. VASIMR can enable effective Earth-Moon and Earth-Mars missions.

These low thrust/High ISP missions are already using special orbits and other effects. I have my doubts that even lower thrust is worth any fuel savings. Especially considering you have to have a staff to monitor the craft while it is in transit. Which equals $ spent.

 

[Jarvitä]

So why do we care about this?

some comms birds are already using electric propulsion. VASIMR can enable effective Earth-Moon and Earth-Mars missions.

These low thrust/High ISP missions are already using special orbits and other effects. I have my doubts that even lower thrust is worth any fuel savings. Especially considering you have to have a staff to monitor the craft while it is in transit. Which equals $ spent.

Because, depending on the energy requirements, a (real) reactionless drive potentially implies infinite dV.

 

[Zachstar]

And what would you do with said dV if it takes a century to get up to said DV? What about solar wind pressure? What about costs of maintaining ground team? What about communications requirements? Are you paying extra for the components that can withstand decades in space?

Eventually taking on some fuel beats out the cost and delay of lower than ion thrust.

 

[jedidia]

And what would you do with said dV if it takes a century to get up to said DV?

Then it all depends on how well the thing would scale up.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Is the inventor a guy or a gal?

 

[Codz]

She's female.

 

[jedidia]

Aisha's definitely a female name, yes. Wasn't even aware that could be ambiguous...