NASA Explores Quantum Engine

Thursday, March 21, 2013

NASA is looking into advanced propulsion techniques to "enable human exploration of the solar system over the next 50 years, and ... interstellar spaceflight by the end of the century." The agency believes that a Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster (QVPT) might be the breakthrough system they need. The pool of electromagnetic particles created by the Casimir force would be the fuel for the QVPT. That means that a QVPT doesn't have to carry a fuel source to propel itself onward -- it can generate propulsion through the manipulation of quantum electro dynamics.

Posted by brilliantbart at 06:31 PM | 46 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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brilliantbart

Joined 2013/01/22
Visited 2013/06/14

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In fact, NASA's initial projections for a QVPT estimate that if a 100MW, 200mT (QVPT) could be engineered, the timeframe for transit between the Earth and Neptune would be just over 100 days.

Comments

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100 days from Earth to Neptune still seems slow by Star Fleet standards. Actually though it's really only 96 days.

It will take 2 days pre/post-flight decompression time before and after the journey. Time-bends are a really bummer.

#1 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-21 06:54 PM | Reply | Flag:

NASA should stick to developing the improbability drive

#2 | Posted by PunchyPossum at 2013-03-21 08:14 PM | Reply | Flag:

Um, the constitution doesnt say anything about space travel therefore the guvermint shouldnt be doing this. Screw new technology! The Koch's need tax cuts!

#3 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2013-03-21 08:31 PM | Reply | Flag:

I suggest that as soon as they build one of these Quantum engines, we send out our new rocket with an SOS attached.

Just in case we Earthlings need help sometime in the future, the call for help will have already been sent!

#4 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-21 08:45 PM | Reply | Flag:

Help! We are Earthlings and only just smart enough to end up destroying ourselves. We need help! Come quickly, our Social Security lockbox is empty and the seas are a rising!

Signed,
Earth

#5 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-21 08:49 PM | Reply | Flag:

here's the message I'd send

dear aliens..

PLEASE COME BACK

you forgot corky, northguy and DOC....

#6 | Posted by afkabl2 at 2013-03-21 09:10 PM | Reply | Flag:

I thought the Sequester would hurt them. Are they still giving tours?

#7 | Posted by wisgod at 2013-03-21 09:20 PM | Reply | Flag:

QVPT

My wife orders off that channel all the time.
###

here's the message I'd send

dear aliens..

PLEASE COME BACK

you forgot corky, northguy and DOC....

Don't be in too much of a rush to get rid of us, aflac. We were left here in a desperate attempt to make sure the evolutionary ladder we started you chimps on all those millenia ago continues and you conservatives are showing definite signs of devolution. When we leave, not even Arcnet will save you. I sense a Vogon built highway in Earth's future .

#8 | Posted by northguy3 at 2013-03-21 09:27 PM | Reply | Flag:

and I sense an OVER THE HILL TREKKIE .....with no place to wear his new star wars pajamas...and who can converse in klingon..

#9 | Posted by afkabl2 at 2013-03-21 09:33 PM | Reply | Flag:

#16 | POSTED BY NORTHGUY3

That sure explains a lot. Thank you for clearing that up for me. You might want to claim us chimps all anymore though.

The Volgons might be upset to discover is was you guys that started all the mess on Earth.

#10 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-21 09:33 PM | Reply | Flag:

When we leave, not even Arcnet will save you.
#16 | Posted by northguy3

I'm sure you'll remember the tab with a 10% gratuity for the Obama-Phone Program.

#11 | Posted by wisgod at 2013-03-21 09:34 PM | Reply | Flag:

#17

you're combining star wars and star trek... any nerd will tell you that is a capital offense.

#12 | Posted by ClownShack at 2013-03-21 09:39 PM | Reply | Flag:

Good catch. Though I suppose that an over the hill Trekkie could also wear Star Trek pajamas and speak in Klingon too.

Probably just shouldn't wear clown shoes at the same time. That'd be, that'd be weird as heck.

A what would the population on Neptune think of Northguy then?

#13 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-21 11:19 PM | Reply | Flag:

Lots of places have a "North".

#14 | Posted by TheTom at 2013-03-22 12:17 AM | Reply | Flag:

Not a hard to do at all... but I'll NEVER share the concepts with the existing govts of this world. It would be our demise. I'd rather finally meet my maker. Meanwhile it may happen anyway.

My hope is that simple and easy are often so far apart that I doubt what's obvious to me is to anyone else. Suck it NASA.

#15 | Posted by reitze at 2013-03-22 12:22 AM | Reply | Flag:

Bob, the tech today is far better what it use to be. The problem is the current cost is astronomically higher than that of the 60's. It's a money issue, not technology, something all those great Sci-Fi writers of the 50's missed.

Crisis

#16 | Posted by CrisisStills at 2013-03-22 11:00 AM | Reply | Flag:

To infinity and beyond!

#17 | Posted by sames1 at 2013-03-22 11:05 AM | Reply | Flag:

100 days to get to Neptune? Back in the 16th century wasn't that about how long it took to get from China to London? Didn't stop develop and trade from blossoming. The point is, if there are resources in that neck of the solar system which can be utilized in a cost friendly manner, a 100 day journey will not prevent development and exploitation of those resources.

#18 | Posted by moder8 at 2013-03-22 11:20 AM | Reply | Flag:

I thought the Sequester would hurt them.

#15 | POSTED BY WISGOD AT 2013-03-21 09:20 PM | FLAG:

That's silly. Sequester =/= stop all work. It simply means that a lots of ideas just like this one never see the light of day because they're never given a chance to start.One of the major cuts NASA will see due to sequestration is cuts to R&D and developing technology.

On topic, this is pretty sweet stuff, good luck to NASA on this! The article is ~3 moths old; has anything happened in the last 3 months worth reporting?

#19 | Posted by bartimus at 2013-03-22 12:01 PM | Reply | Flag:

NASA should stick to developing the improbability drive

#10 | POSTED BY PUNCHYPOSSUM AT 2013-03-21 08:14 PM | REPLY | FLAG:

That's about as realistic and likely as what they're proposing here, honestly.

#20 | Posted by soheifox at 2013-03-22 01:24 PM | Reply | Flag:

But I love how there's already "scientists" saying "once we get this working, it will only take a hundred days to get to neptune!". That's most of what is ill0termed "quantum" research in a nutshell.

"We can't actually make any of this [...] happen, but check out all the really cool things we could do if we could! We're not working on how to make this [...] actually happen, we're actually paying people to theorize what we could do if we actually made any of this work! Check out our mathematical equations based on the theoretical applications of things we can't get to work and are barely even trying to. Give us more grants to do this more!"

As a society, we need to move past this religion in labcoats and start working on making things happen.

#21 | Posted by soheifox at 2013-03-22 01:28 PM | Reply | Flag:

Bah, this is child's play. After some expert consultation with Nulli, I've nearly perfected my Ion drive. Yep, 2 weeks to the asteroid belt baby.

#22 | Posted by Daniel at 2013-03-22 01:41 PM | Reply | Flag:

I would bet that the folks that came here and mated with the "indigenousers" used a similar system. Chariots of the Gods.

#23 | Posted by phesterOBoyle at 2013-03-22 01:43 PM | Reply | Flag:

it's the dilithium crystals that will be deprecated.
capacitance (flux) will still be required.
#7 | Posted by ichiro at 2013-03-21 02:42 AM

Rather, the lattice will constantly be reformed due to external exposure.

Bah, this is child's play. After some expert consultation with Nulli, I've nearly perfected my Ion drive. Yep, 2 weeks to the asteroid belt baby.
#30 | Posted by Daniel at 2013-03-22 01:41 PM

A recombinant ion technology? NASA's versions are sloooooooowwww.

#24 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2013-03-22 04:32 PM | Reply | Flag:

As a society, we need to move past this religion in labcoats and start working on making things happen.

#29 | POSTED BY SOHEIFOX

Although an entirely sane and reasonable conclusion, your suggestion may however violate a basic human need.

Consider the following allegory from history.

"..there are no lands to the West!", pleaded the old Viking.

"Then I shall sail beyond West", answered the young Erickson.

#25 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-22 08:36 PM | Reply | Flag:

#26 | POSTED BY MODER8

Woohoo! Yes, and you're quite smart for understanding so quickly. In fact, you are more than smart.

You may have pinpointed our only hope of any real salvation on Earth.

Well done.

#26 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-22 08:41 PM | Reply | Flag:

By the way, this is my first post on the front page. Thank you for responding to it!

I hope to post more stuff of this genre in the future. It's fascinating to see how peoples politics influence their views on news stories like this.

#27 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-22 08:51 PM | Reply | Flag:

100 days to get to Neptune?

No, "the kingdom of heavan is within you". It only takes a few minutes in a comfortable place.

#28 | Posted by reitze at 2013-03-22 09:56 PM | Reply | Flag:

Though I suppose that an over the hill Trekkie could also wear Star Trek pajamas and speak in Klingon too.

Sorry to disappoint you aflac but my command of klingon is as bad as your command of English.

Over the hill? I'm so far over the hill I'm three valleys beyond it. I'm like my first car - a Rolls-Kinardly. Rolls down one hill and Kinardly make it up the next.

#29 | Posted by northguy3 at 2013-03-22 10:01 PM | Reply | Flag:

What kind of acceleration/ deceleration would you need to get to Neptune in a hundred days? The problem with accelerating at warp drive is that it would reduce you a 1 atom thick layer on the back wall.

#30 | Posted by northguy3 at 2013-03-22 10:24 PM | Reply | Flag:

The Volgons might be upset to discover is was you guys that started all the mess on Earth.

No but the mice are really pi$$ed.

#31 | Posted by northguy3 at 2013-03-22 10:25 PM | Reply | Flag:

By the way, this is my first post on the front page. Thank you for responding to it!
I hope to post more stuff of this genre in the future. It's fascinating to see how peoples politics influence their views on news stories like this.
#35 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-22 08:51 PM

That's why I stick around to spread my bias and fallacy from a soapbox made of brotherly love and faux dual-syllabary rap. Pendulation communication re-inventorship sails post thread invasion facial tic toc tells too much while not saying a whole lot forget thee or ignore me not tis twice told by predictable plot Sherlock I d-d-d-d-won't stop tippity-tap keyed fingerings gently slapchop a paragraph of infinite grammatical want like a spooky [...] looking for a ghost to haunt a hole so deep a drop steep hooving clip-clops of the mangoat require hip boots and cleets to wade through the fact that Dick Cheney and George Bush did 9/11.

#32 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2013-03-23 01:33 AM | Reply | Flag:

#40 | POSTED BY REDLIGHTROBOT

Trainwreck? Purple Diesel?

#33 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-23 09:45 AM | Reply | Flag:

Trainwreck? Purple Diesel?

Naw just a flashback to his days hanging with Cid

#34 | Posted by TaoWarrior at 2013-03-23 10:34 AM | Reply | Flag:

#33 | POSTED BY BRILLIANTBART AT 2013-03-22 08:36 PM | REPLY | FLAG

Actually, a far more apt comparison would have been if Erickson had started making maps of what was beyond west and people paid him and his friends to do so.... long before he ever even figured out how to sail. And everyone started taking those maps as reality, too.

Stop mistaking blueskying [...] for dreaming and exploring. We're skipping too many steps, and it's a fantasy we need to stop wasting resources on.

#35 | Posted by soheifox at 2013-03-23 01:52 PM | Reply | Flag:

I refer you to a joke on "The Simpsons". A scifi movie made long before we knew what space was, claimed that if you wore goggles in space you'd be able to breathe. Bart laughed.

See, though, "quantum" research? We're the people theorizing about how to make space goggles and what other purposes they serve, and how else we may use "space air" for propulsion, computing, data transmission and whatnot, without having any idea how space actually works. When we finally do get there, we may well find ourselves sucking vacuum because we wasted too much time developing "technology" based on a completely unproven theory rather than spent actual time studying space before building new uses for it.

#36 | Posted by soheifox at 2013-03-23 01:57 PM | Reply | Flag:

#43 | POSTED BY SOHEIFOX

Lest you forget, kind sir. We are only talking. Although your point might be forceful in the U.S. Congress, We might not have any say so one way or another.

So if we are to daydream, what is the harm done?

I happen to believe very strongly that thoughts, become things. So by dreaming, it is We who might first imagine the future that one day becomes reality.

Such might be the power of our thoughts; and it has always been so.

#37 | Posted by brilliantbart at 2013-03-23 02:40 PM | Reply | Flag:

#45 | POSTED BY BRILLIANTBART AT 2013-03-23 02:40 PM | REPLY | FLAG

You showed no comprehension of what I posted either time. it was my mistake responding to you the first time. You don't understand this article either. People like you fancy yourselves progressive dreamers, but you are just mindless fantasists. Why am I surprised? Anyone who boasts of their intellect in their handle invariably proves to be a mental midget. Head that way, junior.

Anyone who understands the concepts at hand wish to discuss this?

#38 | Posted by soheifox at 2013-03-23 06:32 PM | Reply | Flag: