Advances in Electromagnetic Inertia Propulsion

BRITO, HÉCTOR; ELASKAR, SERGIO

Valencia

Congreso; 57st IAF International Astronautical Congress; 2006

International Astronautical Federation

The concept of electromagnetic (EM) fields contributing to the inertia of physical systems, and a way of manipulating them for space propulsion purposes relying on Minkowski’s energy-momentum tensor are reviewed here. Up to date experimental results using different devices with diverse thrust measurement instrumentation, indicating that autonomous "propellantless" propulsion is being achieved by means of electromagnetic inertia manipulation, are discussed and compared with results produced by independent research teams in U.S.A. and in Europe. Three lines of thrusters are presently being investigated. The first research line is based on an upgraded version of the RAMA-I thruster. The second research line is based on a replication of a thruster being investigated elsewhere (BMW-1). Finally, the third line of research is based on RAMA-II; a thruster in the 2-5 mN thrust range, designed to overcome sources of potentially spurious effects. The results obtained to date are positive and confirm those previously published for RAMA-I, while being much lower than those reported as related to BMW-1. These results, although controversial because the system momentum apparently is not conserved, are shown to be consistent with an alternative formulation of Minkowski’s EM force density, which correctly predicts former peerreviewed experimental results.