A former NASA engineer has claimed he’s developed an engine that harnesses a new force outside of our current knowledge of physics to create thrust without propulsion.
In short, it’s an anti-gravity engine.
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Dr Charles Buhler, a scientist who used to be part of the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab at the Kennedy Space Centre, presented his team’s findings to the Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference.
If it works, it would be a game-changer for humanity and would unleash a new era of space exploration.
Because it doesn’t use fuel, it would massively bring down the costs of space travel compared to what it is now.
Scientists even speculate anti-gravity technology could be used to help humans colonize other planets.
So how does it actually work?
According to Buhler, specific differences in electric fields create a force that’s strong enough to move objects and overcome the force of gravity.
There’s just one problem – it breaks the laws of physics.
More specifically, it violates the conservation of momentum, one of the most well-established principles in physics, and part of Newton’s First Law of Motion.
It’s for this reason that this and similar attempts at anti-gravity have been nicknamed “impossible drives”.
That said, Buhler’s NASA credentials and expertise have made people take notice of the potentially groundbreaking technology.
His team, made up of other engineers from NASA, Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos’s version of SpaceX) and the air force, has been researching the technology for more than a decade, but has only recently seen a breakthrough in its capabilities.
But the technology must undergo rigorous testing and experimentation by other scientists before anyone can officially say the anti-gravity technology works.
And even if technology works in principle, it would likely be decades before it’s developed enough to be strapped onto a rocket – so don’t go booking that holiday to Mars just yet.
It’s also not the first time a scientist came close to cracking anti-gravity technology.
In 2001, British engineer Roger Shawyer debuted his version of the device which he called the EmDrive.
It worked by blasting microwaves inside a reflective cone, which would then build up to create thrust.
Initial tests by NASA’s Eagleworks Team (who research warp drives) showed the machine creating a small amount of power, raising hopes that a breakthrough in space technology could be on the horizon, despite critics claiming it was impossible.
But further testing at the University of Dresden showed that these results were down to measurement error, and the EmDrive didn’t do what its creator hoped.