The mass of our bodies and stuff, is like forced down to the ground by gravity. To go the other way, up, we have to fight gravity with an opposite and stronger force, or reverse the direction of gravity. Or remove the mass from our atoms. The second thing to do is to remove the inertia from our bodies and stuff, the resistance against acceleration, so we can travel with the speed of light. And if we are serious about space travel, we should next find a way to travel way faster than light. We don't know how much of this is even possible in theory. Therefore we need to study the most basic elements, and get to a theory of everything. Then we'll know what is possible and what is not. And it doesn't stop there. If it is possible to locally alter the character of space and its basic elements, a whole new kind of reality can open.
Everything in our universe is connected, more or less.
There are different kinds of forces, force fields, in our universe:
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gravity
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magnetic
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electrostatic
How many types of force fields are there? And are they really different, or deep inside all made out of the same kind of space fabric?
If everything is connected, then how exactly are these forcs connected? Or more to the point of this page: How can we create or alter: gravity, inertia, mass.
There clearly is a connection between electricity and magnetism. With electricity we can create a magnetic field; running a current of electrons through a copper wire causes a magnetic field around it. And by moving the magnetic field of a magnet perpendicular to a copper wire, we can create an electricity; a current of electrons.
But we don't know how to create or alter gravity. Not yet.
We want to travel great distances, flying through Earth's thin layer of atmosphere and traveling far into space. Well.. we actually don't want to travel; we want to go from location A to location B. The shortest route from A to B is: first removing the distance in between, and then going directly from A to B. Maybe there is a way to do that, maybe not, we don't know. Until then, traveling in a straight line is the shortest route (which can sometimes be a curved straight line, when the fabric of space-time is acting funny).
Information can easily travel with speed of light, or near to it. But our bodies and stuff are made out of atoms, which resist against acceleration. Inertia.
Maybe we should listen to our mass, and not aim to accelerate it that fast. Or find a way to remove the inertia from our mass. Anyhow; the speed of light, 299,792,458 m/s (in standard space), is way to slow for serious space exploration. So, what can we do?
What we want to begin with, is a way to get propusion, without using propellant mass. An aircraft's jet engine uses the surrounding air as propellant mass. A rocket in space has no mass around, so it has to take that mass on board, which is crazy because that makes the craft extremely heavy. The harder you kick the propellant mass away, the more kick you'll get in the opposite direction (thrust), the less propellant mass you have to take on board.
Chemical rockets accelerate the propellant mass up to 5 km per second, by thermal expansion of liquids and solids to gases (making it hot and getting a boom). 5 km per second sounds crazy fast, but new are the electrostatic/magnetic ion plasma pulse thrusters, that accelerate the propellant mass up to 90 km per second!
So, while still needing propellant mass, this is the first step towards a more modern fashion of propulsion in space: using electricostatic and magnetic forces.
Downside of ion thrusters so far, is the extremely low amount of thrust. Not enough to lift a craft up and away from Earth. But they can work continuesly for years, while chemical rockets burn out in just minutes.
Cool, but as said; still
using propellant mass. Is there no way to get thrust without using propellant mass? That darn gravity and inertia!
Maybe we should flip the search around to; Why exactly do atoms resist against acceleration? If we can remove the inertia from out bodies and stuff, we can travel with the speed of light, which is not fast enough, but it would be a good start. This in a way sounds more sane than building ever more powerful rocket engines.
Or maybe we should just stay at home. Me, you, we are part of the Earth, maybe more than you think. We are build to fit on Earth: 1G, the atmosphere and its pressure, 24 hour days, the whole biological system, the distance to our star. Almost anywhere else in this universe, the surrounding conditions will instantly kill you.
Imagine, going to planet X. Even if there is life, you can not stay there, because you're probably not compatible with that biological system. If you can travel back again, you have a great story to tell. So what did you gain? An experience, and information. Now, there are many other ways to experience something cool. The information though, may be unique. If there are other ways to obtain that information, there is no need to climb in a rocket.
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A GRAVITATIONAL FIELD
Very large amounts of atoms together, like the Earth, have a noticeable gravitational field, a relative weak force, that attracts the mass of other atoms. But what is really going on?
- Mass attracts mass
- Mass has or causes a gravitational field in and around the space it is in.
- It costs no energy to maintain the force field.
- Gravity is a weak force, relative to other forces. It takes the mass of the whole earth to produce 1G on a small stone, while a simple string can carry that stone. The forces that keep molecules together are so much stronger than gravity.
- A planet has no poles (like magnets have a north and south pole)
- The stronger the force of gravity in an area, the slower speed of time goes there.
- The gravitational field penetrates every known material. There is no known way to shield gravity. Although some have claimed a reduction of between 0.5 to 2% in weight, above fast rotating superconductors.
- Gravity can bend the path of light.
- A gravitational field reaches very far. No limit of distance is known.
Questions
- How is gravity like in the center of the earth?
- Is the speed of gravity equal to the speed of light?
- Is there a treshold, a distance after which there is no effect?
- Is there a minimum or maximum to the force of gravity?
Gravity shielding, Non-mainstream views (source wikipedia)
The consensus view of the scientific community is that gravitational shielding does not exist, but there have been occasional investigations into this topic, such the 1999 NASA-funded paper by Li, et al. See also the writings of the Russian advocate of "anti-gravity", Podkletnov. While experimenting with rotating superconductors he noticed that pipe smoke from a nearby researcher appeared to be collecting in a column above his apparatus. He then devised an experiment in which he magnetically levitated a superconducting rotating disc, and he reported that objects held above the rotating disc underwent a reduction of between 0.5 to 2% in weight. Analyses of Podkletnov's observations by Giovanni Modanese and Ning Wu indicated various applications of quantum gravity theory could allow gravitational shielding phenomena. Podkletnov's findings have yet to be replicated or verified through independent experimental data.
A MAGNETIC FIELD
- A permanent magnet uses no energy to maintain its force field.
- A flow of electrons creats a magnet field.
- A magnet has poles (north & south). A magnetic monopole is not know yet.
- An electro magnet uses energy to maintain its force field, unless it's a superconducting one (?).
- When shutting of the power to an electro magnet, the force field collapses, which produces an electric current while collapsing.
- Even atoms have tiny magnetic fields.
- A permanent magnet can be made by aligning the spin of hot atoms, in a magnet field, and then freezing their positions, by cooling.
- Not all atoms are attracted a magnetic force field.
Part of the energetic system of an atom, are one or more electrons. Electrons can be on their own also. A stream of electrons we call an electric current. When an electric current flows, it creates a magnetic field. This is easy to prove with a compass (that contains a permanent magnet)
As long as the current flows, there is a magnetic field. Less people know that it costs energy to create a magnetic field, and that when turning of the power, the field collapses and produces power.
Superconducting
Through superconducting materials, electrons can flow without resistance. Superconducting material has no interior magnetic field; the Meissner effect is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor during its transition to the superconducting state. No magnetic field inside.
AN ELECTROSTATIC FIELD
INERTIA
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Complex things are a collection, made of a larger number of less complex things. Gravity as we know it, is probably a complex thing, no primary basic element. To learn more about gravity, we have to forget what we know from daily life, and zoom in on the situation. Force might be a primary basic element, but there's probably no "magnetic force" and "gravity force". When a yellow car hits a wall, there is force, but not "yellow car force".
Energy level
A tree letting go of an apple; the apple accelerates to the Earth.
To accelerate an apple in space with a rocket costs energy. Does the Earth's gravitational field generate energy out of nothing? I don't think so. I think an apple closer to the ground contains less energy than an apple in a tree. The amount of energy that can come from dropping it is equal to the loss of energy. Similar to atoms coming together in a chemical reaction, making molecules and releasing energy.
