Thoughts on amplification of X-rays for propellantless propulsion

Here is an interesting article on X-ray waveguides. Also here for curved waveguides and here for my local copy.

Other links here: 1, 2,

In an earlier blog entry I suggested an amplifier to increase the number of 'photons'. Thinking about it now, could a C shaped waveguide be used. Photons from one end feeds back into the amplifier until saturation.

Tenio Popmintchev and KMLabs

Tenio Popmintchev: Future owner of a Nobel Prize

TP's Jila URL

KMLabs : Organization funding the research on HHG xray frequencies from low frequency sources.

Professor James Woodward: Brain of propellantless propulsion tech

Another plug for propellantless propulsion from someone that can explain it to those that need the maths....

James Woodward and his paper on propellantless propulsion. According to info he was in charge of the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics group at NASA

I suggest that it is likely that short term economic views as to the space industry is the cause of NASA's ongoing diminution. Yet its future already belongs to them.

Propellantless propulsion

High Frequency Low Energy principle to propellantless propulsion

This is a model of this principle of propellantless propulsion. Of course in reality, the frequency of the pulses may be too high but I am sure that there are ways to engineer this problem away eg. increasing the size of the "model atom to something usable".

1. Assume that the model atom is the size of a hydrogen atom, but with only one proton and one electron. The mass of the electron is 1/10000 the mass of the proton. The diameter of the atom is approx 1 x 10 ^ -10 meters.

2. Say that when the first pulse hits the atom surface, the electron orbit shifts upwards by 1% of the diameter of the atom. This means that the centre of mass has shifted upwards as well. Since the electron is 1/10000 of the mass of the proton, the centre of mass has shifted upwards by ((1 x 10 ^ -10 m) X 0.01 ) / 10000 = 1 x 10 ^ -16 m. This actually means that the whole system has shifted upwards.

3. Taking into account the velocity of light at 300,000,000 m /s, it will take about 1 x 10 ^ -19 seconds to pass through this model atom. Therefore, the frequency of these pulses, to keep moving the atom upwards should be about 1 x 10 ^ 20 hz. (Actually somewhere along the line I estimated it to be about 1 x 10 ^ 32 Hz).

Implication 01: d = (1 x 10^-16m) / (1 x 10 ^ -19 s) = 1000 m/s = velocity

Implication 02: a = 1000 m/s^2  ie this means that it is 100 times gravity.

4. Each pulse must be of low energy eg. say a slice of infrared light. Higher energy EM will rip the atom apart.

5. The frequency problem may be resolved using the different velocity of propagation of materials and using longer travel paths. This may also be a way to slice up a longer wavelength into shorter pulses or alternatively some clever music....

Heres something and something else from someone credible...

Added on 3rd August 2011


from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon

Momentum of zeptosecond photon = h/lambda = (6.62068 x 10^-34 * 1 x 10 ^ 21)/  299,792,458 = 2.21 x 10^-20 mkg(s^-1).

In 1 second the total amount of momentum exchanged assume 100% transfer (excuse my poor physic vocab) is 2.21 x 10^20 x 10^21 = 2.21 mkg(s^-1).  In other words this means something of 2.21 kg will move 1 meter in 1 second. Note that it does not speak about the surface area of the thing.

Added on 20/08/2011

Something from Professor Woodward: His article on propellantless propulsion here. From my reading, he is talking about the same thing as the diagram model above.

Added on 21/01/2011

Implications of this technology:
1. 5 hour trip to the moon for everyone on the planet
2. 3 week trip (one way) to Mars
3. 5 week trip to Jupiter
4. Mining and almost unlimited material resources of the solar system
5. End of poverty on Earth
6. Recovery of Earth's biosphere - Eden
7. Economic growth for thousands of years?
8. End of pollution

How to create a series of pulses and control frequency