THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO “HMMM….”: MACH THRUSTERS, ...

Mr. P.J. spotted this article and shared it with me this past week, and I have to express my deep gratitude, for this is one of those papers that makes you go "Hmmmm..." Indeed, as we shall see, there are many things in this paper that make you go "hmmm", and many of them probably weren't even intended to do so by its authors. Needless to say, I have to indulge my penchant for high octane end-of-the-twig-beyond-the-weight-of-evidence speculation.

First things first, though, so here's the paper:

SP2018_016 Page 1 The SpaceDrive Project – First Results on EMDrive and Mach-Effect Thrusters

What caught my attention here was not the usual attention on the so-called EM thruster, a device which claims to generate thrust by the interaction of microwaves in a conical waveguide, but rather, the focus on the Mach thruster, which derives its thrust from the acoustic cavitation of crystals! Here's the essence of the idea, from the paper itself:

The second concept to be studied in detail is the so-called Mach-Effect thruster which is being developed by J.F. Woodward since the 1990s and more recently by H. Fearn [19][22]. It is based on one interpretation of Mach’s principle (inertia here is due to mass out there), that inertial mass is due to the gravitational interaction with the whole universe [23]. Woodward and others showed that linearized general  relativity theory with time-varying solutions and Sciama’s analysis altogether leads to mass fluctuations that can be up to 11 orders of magnitude higher for typical devices than classically expected from E=m.c² [24].
    In the Mach-Effect thruster, a stack of clamped piezo crystals is excited using a frequency in the tens of kHz range. According to Woodward, this energy oscillations leads to transient Machian-mass variations that can lead to time-averaged stationary thrusts if they are properly pushed and pulled with the correct frequency and phase. This is believed to happen thanks to the piezoelectric and electrostrictive material properties of piezo crystals. Although at much smaller amplitudes, electrostriction happens at twice the applied frequency and at a 90° phase shift, which is required for stationary thrust [22],[24]. A large brass reaction mass can amplify this effect. A schematic sketch of the thruster as well as an actual thruster and a corresponding ANSYS odel is shown in Fig. 11. We are working on analytical as well as finite element models to accurately predict the oscillation movements on the thruster (verified using laser vibrometry) in order to predict and enhance the thrust produced. (Emphasis added)
Of course, all sorts of science fiction, and science factoid, came flooding into my mind reading this. On the science fiction side, one could not help but think of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek series of science fiction television series, in all its various morphologies from the original series to Deep Space Nine, with their constant reference to "di-lithium crystals" being somehow a key or crucial component to warp drive engines, and hence to the ability to transit whole star systems in a few days' time. One was never told, of course, how exactly crystals operating in anti-matter/matter reactors worked, but nevermind, this was science fiction. Sit back, enjoy the show, and eat your popcorn. (Maybe "dilithium" simply referred to the matter and antimatter versions of the element? Oh, nevermind... back to the popcorn.)
What's much more intriguing is the idea that acoustic cavitation of piezo-electric crystals can produce mass variations that "can lead to time-averaged stationary thrusts if properly pushed and pulled with the correct frequency and phase." Indeed, one wonders if plasmas, with their own unique semi-lattice structures, could do the same (Dr. Ronald Richter, anyone?) The idea of direct relationships between crystals, mass, and gravity and the local lattice structure of a particular local space is, of course, roughly the idea I was getting at in the various pyramid books. One wonders if, indeed, thus pulsed Machian piezo-electric thrust effect could generate longitudinal waves in the medium. My guess is yes, but that's a long story. The bottom line here is the connection of piezoelectric effect, acoustic cavitation at the proper resonate frequencies, and the resulting pulsed inertial mass effect leading to thrust. One wonders, indeed, if this principle could be coupled the concept of warp drive, ala Miguel Alcubierre and Dr. Harold White, and "scaled up" to produce the requisite mass-energy conversions necessary for a practical warp drive, which, if that were the case, would be a pulsed phenomenon, and hence, capable of producing those shadowy longintudinal waves in the medium. (And that in turn, of course, would raise the dreaded weaponization potentialities).
It's that relationship that leads me to my really high octane speculation at the end of today's twig. To get there, let's look at a statement toward the end of this paper:
The SpaceDrive project aims at developing cutting-edge measurement equipment to thoroughly test the latest EMDrive and Mach-Effect thruster models, the two most promising revolutionary thruster concepts that are presently under investigation at various labs. Our thrust balances shall provide the necessary resolution and investigate electromagnetic and thermal artefacts to obtain reliable measurements in order to confirm or refute the claimed thrusts.
     First measurement campaigns were carried out with both thruster models reaching thrust/thrust-to-power levels comparable to claimed values. However, we found that e.g. magnetic interaction from twisted-pair cables and amplifiers with the Earth’s magnetic field can be a significant error source for EMDrives. We continue to improve our measurement setup and thruster developments in order to finally assess if any of these concepts is viable and if it can be scaled up.
     In addition, a number of complementary experiments are carried out to investigate e.g. Machian-mass variations with an alternative rotary setup. (Emphasis added)
In other words, when the experiments were performed on the EM and Mach-crystal thrusters, results commensurate with prior claims for the devices were indeed measured, but these engineers are concerned that some of these readings are effects of inadequate shielding from the power cables to the devices. A proper concern. But what intrigued me about their concluding remarks was not this, but rather, the remark about re-performing the experiments under conditions were the thruster assemblies are in rotation, a clear clue that they are aware of potential torsion effects that could render the thrusters more efficient.
This got me to thinking, and those thoughts are the subject of today's end-of-the-twig high octane speculation. What other way might there be to make the thrust of these crystal structures more efficient? Crystals grow in such a way that their lattice defects, I believe, are responses to the minute variations in the structure of local space-time. In this sense, they are records of those variations. For this reason, crystals grown in outer space, in zero or near zero gravity, are found to be "purer" in the sense that these lattice defects - screw defects, displacement defects, and so on -  are not nearly so prevalent. So I have to wonder if such crystals as used in these Mach thrusters, if grown in such conditions, might generate either an amplifying, or damping, effect on the resulting thrust, or, to restate the speculation in a slightly different form, if crystals grown in a certain local region will enhance the thrust effect of such devices when they are used in that region. I suspect that we may eventually discover that these things are the case.
But if so, wouldn't that restrict their potential use outside the region in which they were grown? Yes, possibly.
But that's where modifiable crystals - liquid crystals, even plasmas - might come in.
In any case, that's today's high octane end of the twig speculation.
See you on the ...
... oh, by the way, did you notice another odd thing? Consider this:
We gratefully acknowledge the support for SpaceDrive by the German National Space Agency DLR (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik) by funding from the Federal
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) by approval from German Parliament (50RS1704). We would also like to acknowledge the support from J. Heisig, W. Stark, C. Holzapfel, J. Woodward and H. Fearn for their contributions to the ongoing experiments.
...Hmmm.... I've always wondered why modern Germany isn't very interested in rockets.
See you on the flip side...

 

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

17 Comments

  1. Pierre on May 27, 2018 at 10:59 pm

    maybe it’s the Giza Thruster rather than Death Star.
    wonder if the lava within the earth counter rotates to the overall spin and does something? Hawaii as a spinning top launching off into space.
    (I am doing L A Waddell, purportedly upon whom Indiana Jones was predicated – plenty to speculate upon when doing 5000 year ‘history’. He might be wrong or right, but mightily interesting. Goats are Good, Wolves are Bad.Then again the winners get to carve or bake history.
    Wonder if Adam/Thor got his stuff from the Giza makers much older than that, or bloodlines, or 2001 style smartener obelisks… available at archive.org for free, ~ 100 year old books).



  2. paraschtick on May 25, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    I’ve been fascinated by propulsion systems all my life, and still cannot believe that in 2018, NASA etc are using (relatively) ancient chemical bombs to get things into space. When you look at the rumours and tales of other means of propulsion (see Townsend Brown, Laithwaite, Sandy Kidd (Scottish engineer who pioneered work with gyroscopes similar to Laithwaite), how can they not look into other means of propulsion?

    So it is great that finally some people are doing “proper” research into these devices. The “crystal” one was new to me (but then again I don’t keep up with these things as I should) and was utterly fascinating. It speaks to ancient myths surrounding magical stones, and science fiction such as Star Trek. Utterly fascinating(2).

    Oh, and of course, the best place to grow perfect crystals is in zero-gee environments. So someone will be doing that probably as well.

    I hope that I live to see the outcome of such experiments. To get to the stars in my lifetime would be a dream come true. I’m rather sick of “deep space” meaning low earth orbit 😉



  3. Margaret on May 23, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    Since anything made on Earth will be profoundly remedial & faulty at best. I have little faith on any of Earth’s space exploration. We have to get permission anyway if we want to leave the lower altitudes. I doubt we would get that permission or it will be highly restricted to what we can explore. Scientists don’t even understand all the uses for plasma so how can it be implemented. As a planet, we barely use solar energy & scientists think they can harness plasma? Good Luck… As far as using crystals, that energy comes from within the environment of which they are grown. I don’t think an artificial environment to grow crystals in, is going give a crystal the energy it needs or in the end what scientists are looking for. Crystals need to be harvested within their natural environment.



  4. Jack on May 23, 2018 at 8:35 pm

    Reminds me of Chris Dunn’s very interesting book where he advocates the Giza pyramid as being a power generator. Specifically, the part where, in the grand gallery, there are mysterious mountings that could have housed Helmholtz resonators which drove earth coupled frequencies to excite a mix of substance gases within the Kings chamber that drove a ‘mazor’ or whatever, that was mounted in the so called stone box most thought was a sarcophagus. My take on his research was that this produced a beam of power that might have recharged space craft or kept manned space stations in orbit. Maybe….
    Time to dig out my treasured copy of The Giza Power Plant and read it again.



    • Jarret on May 26, 2018 at 11:16 pm

      You must be new here….
      Try reading Dr. Farrell’s books on the Great Pyramid; it’s kind of the whole basis for everything on this site.



    • goshawks on May 27, 2018 at 6:00 am

      Jack, Chris Dunn’s “Giza Power Plant” was the book that got me convinced the Great Pyramid was a machine. Ground-breaking in its time…

      Most Gizars probably know of this (06 Nov 2017), but just in case:
      “Cosmic-ray particles reveal secret chamber in Egypt’s Great Pyramid.”
      https://www.nature.com/news/cosmic-ray-particles-reveal-secret-chamber-in-egypt-s-great-pyramid-1.22939
      “All three teams observed a large, unexpected void in the same location above the Grand Gallery. …. The space is at least 30 metres long, with a similar cross section to the Grand Gallery.”



      • Kahlypso on May 28, 2018 at 12:24 pm

        @Goshawks – Pyramid Revelation found that chamber in 2011, not in 2016 or 17 or whatever.. 2 months later Soros paid for the Arabe Springtime, which let the brotherhood in and the first thing they did.. kick Zahi out on his Hawass.. There are more holes in Egypt now than grains of sand..



  5. Robert Barricklow on May 23, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    Interesting star trek connection. One wonders at the secret space program versus the mainstream one. Are we getting leaked info that is now speeding up that dribble? They need to get mainstream in a certain need to know frame; but not beyond it. They certainly want to stay ahead of the power curve; while the rest of the controlled civilization stays within an accepted frame of reference.
    Must be tough to get the control group speeded up to a certain point in the time line of discoveries; but, not beyond, where it would challenge the small, but powerful breakaway one?
    As Woody Allen, or William S Burroughs would say,
    Paranoia is simply knowing all the facts.



    • goshawks on May 24, 2018 at 1:59 am

      Robert, we both read economics professor Michael Hudson. According to Hudson and many others, the non-forgiveness-of-debt ‘situation’ has risen to the point of in-your-face worldwide financial change – probably a systemic collapse. Various authors have pointed-out that, if this civilization ever falls to bronze-age capabilities, we are not coming back. All the low-hanging energy ‘fruit’ has been picked…

      The Project Blue Beam folks intend to take advantage of just such a (manufactured) Crisis to rearrange the world to their liking. Ironically, the magnitude of the situation may actually bring-in the real ETs. Star Trek may rear its head in the arrival of the proverbial Vulcans. Whatever the motives of the real ETs, inserting new technology would be least ‘disruptive’ if the present systems were already trashed



      • Robert Barricklow on May 24, 2018 at 11:46 am

        Goshawks.
        Yes, we are both in the know in the sphere of economics; at least more so than most pretend to be. Here at Giza many are aware of the various shenanigans being perpetrated, monetary being high on the Breakaway Hit Parade.
        Still, I believe mankind should be money’s master;
        not the other way around….



        • Robert Barricklow on May 24, 2018 at 11:49 am

          … ass backwards.
          never now when that Q-36 Space Modulator will show t its-up.



      • Robert Barricklow on May 24, 2018 at 11:53 am

        I can’t see our space cousins making any global stage appearances in the near future[most lifetimes].
        Now, a “staged” alien show is another matter entirely.



  6. marcos toledo on May 23, 2018 at 6:51 pm

    Science Fiction is used like Conspiracy Theory to cover the truth. And keep the rest of us sheeple in the dark while our elites get us to pay for their toys and voyages at our expense as usual. They enjoy while we pay goodbye chumps.



  7. goshawks on May 23, 2018 at 6:49 pm

    I have to say it: an Oscillation Overthruster! (Buckaroo Banzai quiz).

    Alternate paper to the above:
    “NASA’s EM-drive is a magnetic WTF-thruster. Test reveals that the magic space unicorns pushing the EM-drive are magnetic fields.”
    https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/nasas-em-drive-is-a-magnetic-wtf-thruster/
    “It was bound to happen eventually. A group of researchers that may actually be competent and well-funded is investigating alternative thrust concepts. … A group of German scientists has now gotten a reasonable amount of money under the rubric of testing all the things. Basically, because the various space agencies have whispered that no idea is too silly to ignore, we need an effective way to quickly test all the stupid space stuff on the Internet. The Germans are currently building something that is designed to do all that testing. It is an awesome bit of equipment.”

    And, source material (in English):
    “Breakthrough Propulsion Physics”
    https://tu-dresden.de/ing/maschinenwesen/ilr/rfs/forschung/forschungsfelder/raumfahrtantriebe-und-neue-konzepte/breakthrough-propulsion-physics

    (I do believe that ‘something’ that couples to the mass of the universe is going to be our propulsion source. If you go back to the ‘glory days’ of UFO reporting (before the suppression program kicked-in), stopping/starting on a dime, right-angle turns, awesome acceleration – even ‘winking-in/winking-out’ – were all behaviors associated with these craft. All of this corresponds to an ability to go ‘massless’ and/or use the mass of the universe itself as your ‘drive’. Cool, when you can tweak the universe to get somewhere…)



  8. Kahlypso on May 23, 2018 at 11:24 am

    How about crystals that arent formed on a planet that’s turning, ergo they are affected by the torque effet?
    When the EM drive by outr dear Chinese friends was unveiled.. it was about the same time that a lot of blogging was going on about “new” physics coming out concerning near absolute zero.. super conducteurs.. laws of physics going belly up.
    I remember one blog about negative mass liquids… that create a pulsation and movement towards.. when they are hit. Ie..Force is bounced back and amplified towards the direction that the force came from.. remember that one? That’s when I thought to myself.. That’s how they’ll put a force multiplier onto that particular engine.. One side coated with the negative mass liquid.



  9. DanaThomas on May 23, 2018 at 8:36 am

    The science is saying that the universe is a lattice structure conditioned by and/or conditioning consciousness;.pseudo-education still teaches a crude version of Atomism, with atoms (or planets etc.) seen as hard little balls inexplicably rotating in lifeless emptiness….



  10. Lost on May 23, 2018 at 8:12 am

    Okay a crystal version of a reactionless drive, like the ones Laithwaite demonstrated in the 1970s and 1980s.

    Or, since Laithwaite wasn’t the inventor, there’s the independent work described in the book “The Death of Rocketry”.

    Or put more generally, when spinning and sharp changes are involved, “equal and opposite” can be discarded.



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