With this revolutionary engine, humans will be able to travel at 99% the speed of light.

David Burns developed the concept of an engine that he says could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent of the speed of light – all without using fuel. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)

When it comes to space, there is a problem with our human drive to be everywhere and see everything. A big problem. It’s, well, space. He’s too big. Even traveling at the fastest speed the universe allows, it will take us years to get to the nearest neighboring star.

But another human drive is to find solutions to big problems. This is what NASA engineer David Burns does in his spare time. He developed the concept of an engine that he says could theoretically accelerate to 99 percent of the speed of light – all without using fuel.

He posted it on NASA’s Technical Report Server under the heading “Propeller Propulsion,” and on paper it works using a method of changing mass at relativistic speeds – close to the speed of light in a vacuum. It has not yet been reviewed by an expert.

It’s understandable that this article has generated a buzz approaching levels seen in the early days of the EM Drive. And yes, even some headlines claim that the engine can “break the laws of physics.”

But while this concept is exciting, it definitely won’t break physics anytime soon.

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Model “Screw engine”. (Source: luismmolina/iStock)

As a thought experiment to explain his concept, Burns describes a box with a weight inside, strung on a string, with a spring at each end tossing the weight back and forth. In a vacuum like space, the effect of this would be that the whole box would wiggle and the weight would appear to be in place, like a GIF stabilized around the weight.

In general, the box will continue to wobble in the same place, but if the mass of the weight only increases in one direction, it will create more push in that direction and therefore more thrust.

According to the principle of conservation of momentum, which states that the momentum of a system remains constant in the absence of any external forces, this should not be entirely possible.

But! There is a loophole in the special theory of relativity. Hooray for special relativity! According to special relativity, objects gain mass as they approach the speed of light. So if you replace the weight with ions and the box with a loop, then in theory the ions could move faster at one end of the loop and slower at the other.

But the Burns engine is not a vicious circle. It is helical, like a stretched spring – hence the “screw engine”.

“The engine accelerates looped ions to moderate relativistic speeds and then changes their speed to change their mass slightly. The motor then moves the ions back and forth in the direction of travel to create thrust,” he wrote in his abstract. .

“There are no moving parts in an engine other than ions moving along a vacuum line, trapped in electric and magnetic fields.”

Sounds very elegant, right? And this is in theory. But not without significant practical problems.

In accordance with New scientist, the spiral chamber should be quite large. To be precise, about 200 meters (656 feet) long and 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter.

And for the production of 1 newton of thrust, it will be necessary to generate 165 megawatts of energy. This is the equivalent of a power plant producing the force needed to accelerate a kilogram of mass per second squared. So much input for a tiny output. It’s terribly inefficient.

But in the vacuum of space? It just might work. “The engine itself could go up to 99% of the speed of light if you had enough time and energy,” Burns said. New scientist.

And here’s something else. Humans – not all of us, but still many – are desperate to go to interstellar space. We may never get there. But if we never even try to think about it, that “may” turns into “definitely.” What’s the saying – you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t fire?

The “screw engine” works by exploiting how mass can change at relativistic speeds. (TEACHER: NASA)

Burns notes the efficiency issue in his presentation, and also adds that his work has not been peer reviewed and there may be errors in his mathematical calculations. We certainly don’t have blueprints for a fully functional space travel engine.

We have a backlog that can be used to develop such an engine. We have the dream of the stars.

To learn more about science and technology, visit our New Innovations section at The bright side of the news.

Note: Materials courtesy of Michelle Starr above. Content can be edited for style and length.

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