Levitation with essentially zero power draw and heavy payload capability

Posted by Paul LaViolette
March 31, 2016; updated on April 4, 2016

previous posting on this site discussed the first version of the Nassikas reactionless thruster, shown below, which consists of an YBCO superconductor casting shaped in the form of a nozzle with a permanent magnet secured within its throat.   Dr. Nassikas received a U.S. patent on this version last year  (US 8,952,773).

 

 

The Nassikas Thruster (version 1) showed that this Nassikas thruster I (version 1) exhibited a thrust-to-mass ratio 1000 times greater than the NSTAR neon ion thruster used to propel the Dawn spacecraft.  It is also found that it even out performs the Q Thruster (or EMDrive), a reactionless thruster that NASA is currently researching for possible future deep space missions.  Not only does the Nassikas thruster I have a thrust-to-mass ratio 10 times greater than the EMDrive, it also achieves its thrust with zero power input.  The EMDrive, on the other hand, requires 1 kilowatt of power for every 30 grams of force (0.3 Newtons) it delivers.

But in this posting we would like to announce a new superconductor thruster idea that Dr. Nassikas has come up with which should be able to produce 30,000 to a million times more thrust than his previous version.  The implications of this new thruster invention are mind boggling.  To distinguish it from his earlier version, he refers to it as the Nassikas thruster II (version 2); see image above at left.

The Nassikas thruster-II is basically a superconducting coil that has a slight taper so that it has the form of a frustrated cone, rather than a cylinder; see diagram above.  The coil is wound from high temperature superconducting tape such as REBCO CC (conductor coated) tape; see windings 1, 2, 3, etc. in Fig. 1a.  When energized with an electrical current from an energizer (7), a very high amperage current begins to flow in the coil windings and this generates a strong magnetic field oriented essentially along the coil’s axis and in the plane of its windings.

The superconducting layer in the REBCO CC tape windings is very thin, on the order of 1 micron.  Hence the magnetic field will penetrate this layer and will interact with the high current flowing there.  This interaction produces a very strong force called a Lorentz force, which is oriented at right angles to both the direction of the current and the direction of the magnetic field; see outward pointing arrow FL in Figure 1b.  This Lorentz force phenomenon is very standard physics, something that any physicist or electrical engineer will agree exists.  Also it is something that designers of superconducting coils are very wary of because if this outward pushing force is too strong it can rip the coil apart.

Superconducting coils are normally wound as cylinders; hence their Lorentz forces necessarily push radially outward on the sides of the coil.  Since the forces on opposite sides of the coil oppose one another, the result is only to produce a stress on the coil that attempts to radially expand it, but which is counteracted by the tensile strength of the coil’s windings.  This is something known by all engineers who wind superconducting coils.  However, in the case of the Nassikas thruster, the coil is conical rather than cylindrical.  Hence there is a Lorentz thrust component resultant directed along the axis of the coil in its vertical direction toward the coil’s narrow end; see force vector FA in Fig. 1b.  Because there is no opposing force to counterbalance this force, the coil should develop a net upward thrust that should propel it upward.  This should not manifest merely as a static stress in the coil itself, but should be capable of actually levitating the coil.

The test coil we intend to have made will have an outside diameter of 16 centimeters (6.3″) and a taper of 3°.   Since the purpose is only to demonstrate the coil’s ability to produce a propulsive thrust, we are designing it with fewer windings than would be used in a marketable version.  Computer calculations performed by the prospective coil manufacturer show that at liquid nitrogen temperatures, with a current density of 70 amperes per square millimeter flowing in the coil windings, the coil should produce a magnetic field in the vicinity of the coil windings having an intensity of about 0.3 Tesla.  This is about the same magnetic field strength as that produced by a strong refrigerator magnet.  Still, Lorentz force calculations indicate that this low-thrust test prototype should generate a propulsive force of 66 kilograms at liquid nitrogen temperatures.  The coil together with its glass dewar flask filled with liquid nitrogen should weigh about 5 kilograms.  Hence it should produce a levitation force 13.6 times greater than its weight!  In other words, a group of these thrusters could easily lift a vehicle off the ground.  This thrust-to-weight ratio is about 9 times that of the Space Shuttle main engine!  A more practical production version should be capable of generating thrusts even 20 times greater at liquid nitrogen temperatures. At liquid helium temperatures, we estimate this test coil should generate even far greater thrusts.

Remember the above calculations are based on standard physics (the cross product of current and magnetic flux density).  So even if our test shows that these computer model calculations have been overly optimistic even by a factor of ten, it should still be possible to produce more powerful versions that have the capability of levitating a heavy payload.

For our test we intend to have the thruster and its dewar suspended by a cord from the laboratory ceiling.  The thruster coil inside the dewar would have its axis oriented in a horizontal position.  So once cooled down and energized it should produce a lateral force.  We will measure this force with an electronic balance oriented sideways so that the dewar and its coil would exert a force on the balance, the force being transferred through a rigid styrofoam spacer block.  We plan to first measure the force developed when the coil is immersed in liquid nitrogen (77° Kelvin temperature) using a light weight dewar.  If the coil shows an over unity thrust-to-weight ratio, we plan to test it in a vertical orientation to show that it can levitate.  Then, if the liquid nitrogen test is successful and if funds allow, we plan to conduct a similar test with the coil immersed in a larger liquid helium dewar (4° Kelvin temperature).  As mentioned above, the expected propulsion force in this case should be one hundred fold greater.

The Nassikas thruster-II technology, could make the following possible:

• Cars that could take off vertically and fly through the air.

• Cruise ships that could levitate as in the movie The Fifth Element.

• Space shuttles that could lift off the Earth without the help of rockets.

• Shuttles that could fly to Mars in 5 days, not 9 months as NASA currently has in mind.

• Ships that could attain near light speed velocities and travel to the nearest star system (e.g., Proxima Centauri) in 4.5 years, instead of 20,000 years.

• Scooters that could not only move forward, but hover and fly above the ground.

• A “hoverboard” something like that depicted in the movie Back to the Future which the movie predicted would be in common circulation in the year 2015.

• Lorentz thruster motors that would produce shaft torque for generating electricity.*


 

“Two Overunity Technologies and A Theory To Explain Them” by Dr. Paul LaViolette

Dr. LaViolette begins with a discussion on the Sun Cell developed by Black Light Power Corp., a technology that could one day power and heat our home. He goes on to explain the operation of the Nassikas superconducting magnetic thruster, a device which per unit thrust weight provides over 1000 times more thrust than NASA’s NSTAR ion thruster with no energy consumption. The Nassikas thruster can get us to the stars.

Learn more: Two Overunity Technologies

 


*Full article: http://etheric.com/nassikas-thruster-ii/

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