Proxima Centauri in 25 years

So at the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts symposium this month, the team working on Dr Woodward's Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) put through a proposal to send a nuclear powered craft at .4c to Proxima Centauri. This is an actual proposal. Obviously the propulsion is a novel idea, but the craft itself is derived from Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) which was a concept seriously looked at for a nuclear powered unmanned spacecraft in the early 2000's.

Since this is about the most serious near-time proposal for a starship, I thought it might be of interest. The documents are located here.

http://ssi.org/today-at-nasa-niac-2017/

a video of Doctor Fearn's presentation on the starship:

 

Quite a bit of that is above my head but still....WOW!

 

And doesn't violate the laws of physics either, wow. *Hopeful*.

 

From a cursory glance, the drive seems to work by vibrating what is essentially an array of capacitors. When the array is moving in one direction, it is charged up, giving it a slightly higher inertial mass (and by the equivalence principle, gravitational mass) than when the array is uncharged and moving in the opposite direction. The net result is to impart thrust pulses in the direction of the array's motion when it is charged. I assume momentum transfer with the rest of the universe is effectively by gravitational radiation. I'm not clear on why a specific frequency of vibration has to be used.

ETA: Seems to be an application of the Woodward Effect.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/s..._for_In_Space_Propulsion_Interstellar_Mission

NASA has awarded a NIAC Phase 2 grant for MEGADrive Woodward Effect proposal.

 

I would be so happy if we got satellite pictures from Proxima B in my lifetime.

 

Signals travel at the speed of light so it would take a few years to get back home.

 

Only four and a bit years though.

 

4.5 years is still a long time to get a reply imagine snapchat to Alpha Centauri

 

Of course, the round trip time for a question and answer is nearer 9 years.

 

That's okay, I'll wait.

 

Oh yeah I didn't calculate for the whole round trip, but lol conversations would be fun.

 

Correspondence chess would certainly be tedious.

 

Just use the quantum entanglement phones.

 

That would be the Ansible thing to do.

 

Phase II NIAC funding was awarded.

 

Some problems
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2018/06/18/marc-millis-on-mach-effect-thruster-emdrive-tests/
These observations do not bode well for the EmDrive’s claims of real thrust, but it is too early to firmly dismiss the possibilities.

This keeps up--and it'll join the spin-dizzy in the circular file.

 

Only the Spindizzy was a work of fiction.

 

The Voyager sattelite(s) really should've been sent to Proxima Centauri, instead of the inky void of nothingness ...

 

Where will they currently end up though? Will they keep flying through nothingness?

I don't know why they don't do a Voyager style probe now, and send it in that direction. It would be less costly then a manned mission somewhere wouldn't it?