[AR] Re: NASA test of quantum vacuum plasma thruster (was "Anyone heard of this?")
- From: David Weinshenker <daze39@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 19:06:40 -0700
Jake Anderson wrote:
> On 05/08/14 10:42, Michael Clive wrote:
>> Monroe, it requires money to get vacuum pumps, chambers,
>> interfeometers, RF amplifiers, DAQ systems, structural equipment. It
>> requires money to get the systems to a level of sophistication that
>> the data produced by them will be trusted. It takes money to have
>> calibration labs verify your equipment, and it takes money to publish
>> results, host websites, etc.
> Actually I'd argue that is taking the wrong approach,
> Firstly we don't actually care about the efficiency of the thing, all we
> are after is the presence or absence of the effect. IE is there
> something there?
> The more gear you have that needs calibration the more chance there is
> for something to go wrong.
> Go as simple as you can (that's what the point of the pendulum is)
>
> I wonder if you could make the pendulum long enough in a reasonable
> chamber that the displacement of the thing in operation could be
> observed by eye/camera.
Reflect a laser beam off a small mirror on the test article, and project
it on a distant target? (The old galvanometer trick, for measuring weak
electrical signals back in the day, before electronic voltmeters became
as good as they now are: a coil, arranged to twist in a large magnet, hung
from a thin torsion pendulum, and fitted with a small mirror for observing
its motion.)
-dave w
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