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An American startup has announced the discovery of a new force that can be used for space travel without fuel.
Charles Buhler, a former NASA engineer and co-founder of startup Exodus Propulsion Technologies, said his company has developed a non-jet engine for spaceflight. According to the developers, the device generates enough thrust to counteract Earth's gravity without throwing off mass.
Bühler and his team began researching the concept of a fuel-free engine more than two decades ago. Their propulsion system uses an asymmetry of electrostatic pressure to propel itself forward. The team presented their drive concept at a recent alternative energy conference.
Electric fields can create a steady force and move an object's center of gravity without displacing part of the mass, Buhler explains. The materials used consist of many types of charge carrier coatings that are held on a dielectric film.
The engineer added that the propulsion system developed by the company has demonstrated the ability to generate a force equivalent to Earth's gravity without mass ejection through fuel. The company is talking about the discovery of a new force, different from all known before.
The principle of operation and history of engine tests
If the claims of Bühler and his team are true, the experiments with engines will undoubtedly be a huge breakthrough. The system, which does not use rocket fuel, will significantly reduce costs, enable long-range missions and revolutionize spaceflight.
But this is not the first time that startups claim to invent radically new types of engines. So the discovery awaits a thorough check by skeptical scientists, a demonstration of the effectiveness of the devices in experiments, and even better in outer space. The credibility of the project is only enhanced by the history of the company's founder: he worked in such NASA programs as, for example, the International Space Station and the Hubble telescope.
