Nexus - 0502 - New Times Magazine-pages

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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE if 2 © ot Figure 3A Acceleration, Deceleration Profile GIT @Q) Q Y ces Figure 3A Centrifugal Force Profile, Accelerating GIT orbitals place on the race. In figure 3B, the unequal rays coming down from the centre of the circle show the centrifugal force pro- file, which is very heavy to the front (the direction you're going toward—up, in this view!) and rather skinny on the backside. In previous devices (the ones with the dumb weights that don't work so well), these two force-profiles exactly cancelled each other out over time, and no thrust was the result. THE "GIT" IN OPERATION Starting with zero thrust of a variable velocity type of inertial thruster, we look at what we have in that zero, and it's a tug of war that stays balanced (through time) over the mud pit. No one wins! So, how about tilting the odds in favour of one team, and taking a wide swathe out of the losing side's foothold? We can do that! With orbitals that can increase and decrease their spin rate, we now have somewhere to put some of one side of the momentum tug-of-war. While the acceler- ation energy does in fact react with the race to slow it down (transferred into the race as a thrust wanting to hold you back), in my device the spin axis of the orbital shares some of that reverse thrust. A good portion of that reverse vector is turned head over tail by the orbital as an increase in spin rate, thus removing some of the reverse force from the centre of mass of the total system. The orbitals are included in the system mass (centroid), but the energy needed to accelerate (in a linear sense) a spinning orbital is darn near equal to that needed to push along a non-spinning one! Our orbital can gulp up and regurgitate momentum and not get heavier against the race! A bulimic orbital! The race does not absorb the total energy of the decelerating orbital, so the now stronger centrifugal force profile can win our tug of war. Upon reaching the tail of our race, the orbital now has two momentum compo- nents: its increased spin momentum, and its reduced forward momentum. On its way back to the nose, the orbital powers itself against the race to accelerate it, relative to the race. However, since the decreasing spin is winding out to accelerate the orbital, now it only needs to accelerate one side. Since half of the mass is already travelling in the direction you want it to go, less energy of position, from the centre of mass of the system, is needed to motivate it forward in the race. 50 + NEXUS Acceleration, Deceleration Profile GIT Centrifugal Force Profile, Accelerating GIT FEBRUARY - MARCH 1998