[AR] Re: NASA test of quantum vacuum plasma thruster (was "Anyone heard of this?")
- From: Ben Brockert <wikkit@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2014 11:17:38 -0500
And the control that wasn't supposed to make thrust also made thrust,
which suggests that it's not the thruster making force.
On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 10:15 AM, David Weinshenker <daze39@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> William Blair (Redacted sender wbblair3@xxxxxxxxx for DMARC) wrote:
>> How could they then be certain that air movement caused by the differential
>> heating
>> of the air within the RF cavity hadn't caused the measured micro-thrust? I
>> must be
>> missing something because this seems to be too obvious of a potential flaw
>> in the test.
>
> Well, the abstract (is the full text available anywhere?) did mention a
> comparison
> run they did with an "RF load" replacing the test device, which seems to be
> intended
> to control for effects such as you suggest. (If the test device wasn't
> designed and
> baked out for operation in vacuum, escaping air from crevices, and outgassing
> of
> surfaces, could conceivably create spurious forces of their own if the
> chamber was
> pumped down to vacuum.)
>
> -dave w
>
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