Energy & Propulsion‎: Phase-shifted Thruster

Transverse Impulse Drive
Patent Pending PCT/IB2010/052975

The Electrodynamic Space Thruster is an innovative method of propulsion proposed in 2010 by “Douglas” F. Palte, which uses phase-shifted oscillations, in order to enable fast interstellar spaceflight in an energy-efficient way. It is to work similarly to a linear AC motor, running as fast as light waves, which can be mathematically verifiable by (f ≥ c/L), thereby producing high speed forces and consequently, strong acceleration in the interstellar medium without infringement of laws of classical physics.

See also: Phase-shift Plasma Turbine

Theory of operation

Six-phase Single-loop Linear Thruster.png

An array of antennas, feed by phase-shifted oscillations, generating a sequenced pattern, producing a traveling transverse force along the array length, wherein the speed of traveling transverse force must be as fast as light waves, which can be obtained by adjusting speed of light and array length ratio to be greater than or equal to the oscillation frequency (f ≥ c/L), and in consequence, a net thrust force is expected due to electrodynamic drag generated by mutual forces of action and reaction.

Possible types of interaction

This phase-shifted thruster can possibly interact with:

Interstellar Medium, which consists of neutral hydrogen gas, molecular gas, ionized gas, and dust grains.^[1]^[2]
Intergalactic Magnetic Fields which may permeate the whole universe.^[3]^[4]
Action-at-a-distance, in classical physics, which is the instantaneous interaction with all celestial bodies without mediator.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Comparison to previous concepts

This propulsion concept, although propellant-free, needs to interact, by means of action-reaction, with celestial bodies, universe’s magnetic and electric fields, action-at-a-distance, space-time, cosmic gases and dusts, by using external phase-shifted oscillations for generating linear thrust force, which makes it different from reactionless drives or inertia drive, as well, different from EmDrive^[8] that can be classed as a reactionless drive with internal single-phase RF source.

Transverse Impulse Drive

An array of transverse impulse drives can be used instead of using conventional antennas such as dipole, dipole folded, and loop antenna, in order to produce more direct and efficient thrust force. The impulse drive is similar to a TWT that works by emitting, accelerating and recovering electrons in order to produce powerful oscillations in an energy-efficient way. Theoretically, to produce more transverse force than electromagnetic radiation, the acceleration voltage must exceed much more than 256kV to try to accelerate electrons closer to the speed of light.

Performance

The minimum requirement for an acceleration of 1 g-force (10m/s²) theoretically is 50kW/kg, perhaps enough for a lift off. However, some losses due to electromagnetic radiation will occur, but even with heavy losses the energy-efficiency is to be better than expelling-mass propulsion which power consumption increases exponentially with exhaust velocities (see Tsiolkovsky equation).^[9]
Solar arrays can produce 300W/kg near the Earth, hence, theoretically a travel to Moon and Mars could be accomplished using solar power. Solar energy is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the Sun (1/r²), hence, to Jupiter and beyond, to achieve high accelerations and consequently higher final velocities, a more suitable power source would be the aneutronic fusion reactor.^[10]^[11]