The Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory or "Eagleworks Laboratories" at
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's
Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...
is a small research group investigating a variety of theories regarding new forms of
spacecraft propulsion
Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion exclusively deals with propulsion systems used in the vacuum of space and should not be confused with space launch or atmospheric e ...
. The principal investigator is Dr.
Harold G. White
Harold G. "Sonny" White (born October 8, 1965) is a mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, and applied physicist who is known for proposing new Alcubierre drive concepts and promoting advanced propulsion projects.
Educational
White obtained a ...
.
The group is developing the
White–Juday warp-field interferometer in the hope of observing small disturbances of spacetime and also testing small prototypes of thrusters that do not use
reaction mass
Working mass, also referred to as reaction mass, is a mass against which a system operates in order to produce acceleration.
In the case of a chemical rocket, for example, the reaction mass is the Product (chemistry), product of the burned fuel sh ...
, with currently inconclusive results. The proposed principle of operation of these
quantum vacuum plasma thruster
A reactionless drive is a hypothetical device producing motion without the exhaust of a propellant. A propellantless drive is not necessarily reactionless when it constitutes an open system interacting with external fields; but a reactionless ...
s, such as the
RF resonant cavity thruster
The EmDrive is a concept for a thruster for spacecraft, first written about in 2001. It is purported to generate thrust by reflecting microwaves inside the device, in a way that would violate the law of conservation of momentum and other laws o ...
('EM Drive'),
has been shown to be inconsistent with known
laws of physics
Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena. The term ''law'' has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) a ...
, including
conservation of momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
and
conservation of energy
In physics and chemistry, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant; it is said to be ''conserved'' over time. This law, first proposed and tested by Émilie du Châtelet, means th ...
. No plausible theory of operation for such drives has been proposed.
Purpose
The Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory is enabled by section 2.3.7 of the NASA Technology Roadmap TA 2: In Space Propulsion Technologies:
The lab's purpose is to explore, investigate, and pursue advanced and theoretical propulsion technologies that are intended to allow human exploration of the solar system in the next 50 years with the ultimate goal of interstellar travel by the turn of the century.
The 30x40 ft floor of the lab facility floats on large pneumatic piers in order to isolate it from any seismic activity. The pneumatic piers were originally built for the Apollo program and used to perform work involving
inertial measurement units (IMU) before being brought out of retirement.
See also
*
Boeing Phantom Works
Boeing Phantom Works is the advanced prototyping arm of the defense and security side of Boeing. Its primary focus is developing advanced military products and technologies, many of them highly classified.
Founded by McDonnell Douglas, the res ...
, advanced projects division
*
Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program The Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project (BPP) was a research project funded by NASA from 1996-2002 to study various proposals for revolutionary methods of spacecraft propulsion that would require breakthroughs in physics before they could be re ...
*
JPL
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
* Lockheed
Skunk Works
Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...
, advanced projects division
* NASA
Swamp Works
The Swamp Works is a lean-development, rapid innovation environment at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It was founded in 2012, when four laboratories in the Surface Systems Office were merged into an enlarged facility with a modified philosophy fo ...
References
NASA groups, organizations, and centers
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