one of the most basic laws of physics states that every action has an equal and
opposite reaction the principle on which all of our space rockets have been operating
they blast off into space with the propellant on one end thrusting the rocket into another
direction a nasa engineer at the marshall flight center in alabama has now designed a
helical engine that is claiming to need absolutely no propeller to travel at the speed of light
and it's causing quite the stir as it goes against the very laws of physics
what does nasa have up its sleeve will the new engine defy the laws of physics or will it fail
before ever taking off welcome to fact nominal and today we will take a look at nasa's new near
light spin engine that could change the future of space travel as we know it
the idea that one could travel at the speed of light seems to be something possible only in
sci-fi movies to be precise the speed of light is measured at two hundred ninety nine million seven
hundred ninety two thousand four hundred fifty eight meters per second coming close to achieving
that speed seems impossible and oftentimes far-fetched but that hasn't stopped mankind
from pushing new boundaries and daring to try for things that seem way beyond our reach and the new
nasa engine embodies just that take for example the fact that before 1947 traveling at the speed
of sound was even unheard of but then came the famous commercial supersonic concord jet double
the speed of sound which could take you from new york to london in approximately 2 hours and 52
minutes compared to the six hours and 50 minutes it would take us today pretty neat huh though we
don't see them anymore the mere fact that these engines did become a reality is enough to inspire
future inventions with that said traveling at the speed of light is not as simple as it seems
mostly used as the most preferred unit to measure the distance in space especially considering how
most points of our interest in space lie many years away reaching them is even harder with
astronomers and scientists constantly studying observing and looking for new earth-like planets
and satellites that could possibly hold human life in the future we sure would need a good way to
even possibly get there given the current state of propulsion technology traveling to other celestial
bodies deep in space would take tens of thousands if not millions of years space is simply too big
and it would take years and years for us to even reach our closest neighboring stars and planets
to put it into perspective if the new horizon spacecraft which reached pluto by traveling at
a whopping 58 000 kilometers per hour were to be used for space travel to say alpha centauri
it would need no less than 78 000 years to do so other things to worry about would be fuel and
how much of it we would need to actually navigate through the cosmos there is therefore a need for
something that could solve all of these problems and is still able to move at an astonishing speed
nasa has been at the top of its game recently and they are constantly trying to find solutions to
the bigger problems david burns a nasa engineer has been doing just that in his spare time
he claims to have designed an engine concept that could theoretically at least accelerate to 99 of
the speed of light if that sounds amazing just wait it gets better this engine wouldn't even be
relying on a propellant to achieve this the engine was proposed to nasa and made public on october 11
2019. in his paper published called helical engine he goes into detail explaining how this futuristic
spacecraft is able to be propelled into space by using in-space engines that will not be needing
any fuel now this in itself is not an entirely new concept as attempts at such engines without
the use of a propellant have been made in the past in the late 1970s u.s inventor robert cook
patented an engine that converted centrifugal force into linear emotion and in the early 2000s
british inventor roger shoyer posed the em drive which he claimed could convert trapped microwaves
into thrust so how exactly would this new helical engine work the helical engine takes advantage
of the loophole in einstein indian physics by accelerating a loop of ions too near light speed
and then manipulating their velocity and by the laws of relativity their mass as a result of
which the engine would be thrust forward without having to even shoot anything out behind it burns
himself explains that the engine can basically be understood with the following illustration
imagine putting a ring in a box that bounces in one direction while the box recoils in
the opposite direction in turn when the ring inside the box hits the end springing backwards
the box's recoil direction is changed as well now under any normal circumstance the box would
wiggle back and forth but since both the box and the ring would be moving at the speed of light
by the time the ring reaches the end of the box the mass would increase as it would travel faster
while bouncing back thus resulting in forward momentum though the helical engine would not
require a propellant a particle accelerator and ion particles would do the job instead
the spacecraft is said to be able to blast off into space with any propellant
just by leveraging the mass altering phenomena that occurs at near light speed
and since the engine is said to be traveling at the speed of light this may just work out
the moment david byrne's paper was published it caused a massive stir among the entire space
community levels of which had only previously been seen when it came to the famous em drive
some have even claimed that the very basis of this new engine could possibly be violating
the laws of physics some argue that while the engine concept is great it's just that
great on paper but practically not possible so let's break it down the em drive and robert cook's
engine were both never successfully demonstrated and heavily violated the conservation of momentum
a core physical law the principle of the conservation of momentum which
states that the momentum of a system remains constant in the absence of any actual forces
this helical engine should not even be possible then of course there is the special relativity
loophole you gotta love a loophole unlike the other machines the helical engine makes
use of special relativity according to which an object gains mass as it approaches light speed
burns has envisioned swapping out the box in the ring that he used in his illustration
for more helix-shaped accelerator from which it derives its name generating a net thrust
in a preferred direction the engine would then accelerate ions confined in a loop to moderate
relativistic speed and then vary their velocities to make alterations and changes to their mass
the ions are moved back and forth by the engine along the direction of travel to produce thrust
but the engine has no moving parts except for the ions traveling in a vacuum line all while
being trapped inside electric and magnetic fields sounds great so far right the engine concept is
yet to be reviewed and tested and many are already debating whether or not this will be a success
if somehow it does show potential and prove a success it would mean that many core physical
laws would be put into question others argue that it wouldn't necessarily defy the laws
but rather can be seen as expanding our understanding of the laws of physics
and suggests that perhaps we have a lot more to learn either way until it has any precise
physics experiments and proof to support it the laws of physics will still stand strong
with anything new and especially something that's not been done before there will always be certain
hurdles the new engine is no exception and many argue the drawbacks are just too many in this case
when it comes to the nasa helical engine there are a lot of things to consider
one being the size of the engine and in order to even make it a possibility the engine itself would
have to be 200 meters long and 12 meters wide which would render it not suitable for space
travel it would also have to be immensely powerful requiring almost 165 megawatts of power to
generate a single neutron of thrust that means it would require a massive amount of input for a very
teeny tiny amount of output which is extremely inefficient the engine would also require the
frictionless environment of space to be able to reach meaningful speeds burns himself has stated
that the engine would be able to get to 99 of the speed of light if there is enough time and power
this machine makes use of einstein's special relativity only and that's where the problem lies
because there is always an action and reaction which complicates matters for the helical engine
as of now the helical engine is still just on paper but it definitely opens up new avenues
and ideas that could see us traveling into space at the speed of light a machine of this speed
would be able to take astronauts to mars in less than 13 minutes or even to the moon in just over
a second dr burns mentions the advantages in his paper stating that an engine of this sort
could be used for more long-term satellite station keeping as they would never have to be refueled
though the engine hasn't become a reality yet his idea is definitely unique completely doing
away with the need for rocket fuel altogether like the em drive and if his engine does work
as he predicts it would completely revolutionize the idea of space travel so while we may not be
quite there yet lightspeed travels is still a dream but with constant innovations like
this and changes in technology maybe it won't be a dream for too long so what do you think
will nasa's new engine succeed in bringing us one step closer to lightspeed travel
let us know in the comments and don't forget to mash the like button and subscribe to our
channel for more videos like this thanks for watching fact nominal we'll see you next time
you