Revista de Engenharia Aeronáutica e Aeroespacial
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Abstrato

Casimir-Like Macroscopic Propulsion and Environmental-Energy Conversion

Scott Smith W*

According to Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), a hidden source of great momentum and energy, called the EM Quantum Vacuum, fills the Universe. A Quantum light-sail will use refraction to induce asymmetric boundary conditions in the isotropic EM radiation pressure of the Quantum Vacuum. In terms of Newton’s First Law, these asymmetric radiation-pressures act as outside-forces that push harder on one side of a light-sail than on its opposite side. This radiation-pressure will provide the motive force for a new class of macroscopic prime-movers, a kind of massless propulsion; a new environmental-energy conversion device.