Moving spacecraft with the Inchworm Effect
Ok, that's my term for it...
The problem in outer space for moving a spaceship around is you've got nothing to push against. You can't use a propeller, you can't use wheels like you can on earth.
So what we do is chuck stuff out the back at very high speeds and get forward thrust that way.
BUT, there is another way!
Watch the Inchworm in this thought experiment:
We know we can change the mass of an object (Einstein's famous E=MCsquared).
So, imagine a spaceship pulling something along behind it - lets call it an anchor.
1) We do whatever is needed to increases the anchor's mass and then we push against it.
The anchor goes back a bit and the ship goes forward a bit.
2) Then we stop doing whatever it was and the mass of the anchor goes back to normal... and we reel it in.
We move back a bit but the anchor moves forward a little bit more because it doesn't have as much mass as when we pushed against it.
Repeat.
After every 'cycle' completes, the ship and anchor have inched forward a bit.
It's really called the Woodward Effect and you can read more about it below.
#forwidersharing #outerspace
Ok, that's my term for it...
The problem in outer space for moving a spaceship around is you've got nothing to push against. You can't use a propeller, you can't use wheels like you can on earth.
So what we do is chuck stuff out the back at very high speeds and get forward thrust that way.
BUT, there is another way!
Watch the Inchworm in this thought experiment:
We know we can change the mass of an object (Einstein's famous E=MCsquared).
So, imagine a spaceship pulling something along behind it - lets call it an anchor.
1) We do whatever is needed to increases the anchor's mass and then we push against it.
The anchor goes back a bit and the ship goes forward a bit.
2) Then we stop doing whatever it was and the mass of the anchor goes back to normal... and we reel it in.
We move back a bit but the anchor moves forward a little bit more because it doesn't have as much mass as when we pushed against it.
Repeat.
After every 'cycle' completes, the ship and anchor have inched forward a bit.
It's really called the Woodward Effect and you can read more about it below.
#forwidersharing #outerspace
» see original post https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/LqU4jw2sa4j
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