Re: Propellantless propulsion system

From: John Smith (user_at_example.net)
Date: 01/21/05 

To: sci-space-tech@moderators.isc.org
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 22:56:51 +1300

James Nicoll wrote:
> Although the idea of being able to convert angular
> momentum into linear with actually throwing stuff is an old
> one in space: didn't both Tsiolkovsky _and_ Oberth briefly
> toy with that before seeing the obvious problem?

As a bit of whimsy - how about two long thin contra-rotating masses,
with an electric motor at the pivot point that makes them contra-rotate.
(Motor is powered by sun.) Two chopsticks spinning against each other.

One probe & one dummy mass are mounted on the tips of one of the
chopsticks. They can withstand some ridiculous amount of acceleration.

The contra-rotating chopsticks are spun up over some extended period of
time, until the tip velocity is some unimaginable figure that defies
modern materials science, and then the probe/mass are released. One
goes one way, one goes the other. The probe carries out useful science,
and the dummy mass causes a catastrophe somewhere two thousand years later.