Spacecraft Engine Concept
A basic problem with
spacecraft design is that they must either expel matter to accelerate, rely on the pressure of the
]stellar wind or rely on planets to provide
gravity assist.
Rocket propellants will eventually run out, and the stellar wind and planets can only be used within a
Planetary system. If a spacecraft is to keep accelerating as it travels further into
interstellar space, it needs some other motive force.
If the Woodward effect were real, and if an engine could be designed to exploit it, the basic concept would be that the engine would pull ions when their mass was lower, and push them when it was higher. The result would be steady acceleration.
Mach's Principle says that inertia (i.e. resistance to acceleration) is caused by the mutual gravitational attraction of all matter in the universe. Thus, if the mass of a given object can be varied while being oscillated either in a linear or orbital path, such that the mass is high while the mass is moving in one direction and low while moving back, then the net effect should be acceleration in one direction as the inertial drag of the universe upon the object varies as its mass varies. Woodward claims to have accomplished this by taking advantage of the demonstrated fact that the mass of a capacitor will change with its charge.
Woodward has published a paper on the effect that was presented at the
NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Workshop in 1997 and is available on his university's website
][3] and has applied for a patent on engines based on the effect
[4] This has generated some interest in the media.
[5][6][7][8]
Wormholes and Stargates
Woodward has stated on
The Space Show that theoretically, if the device can be built robust enough to handle sufficient amounts of power, the device should be able to generate
wormholes with flat enough throats to resemble stargates seen in
Stargate SG-1 and other science fiction, enabling instant transit between points in space-time
[9].
