Precocious young physicist Aisha Mustafa just patented a new system that could propel spacecrafts to the final frontier without utilizing a drop of fuel.

In short her system taps one of the odder facets of quantum theory, which posits that space is not really a vacuum. It’s really filled with particles and anti-particles that exist for infinitesimally little periods of time before destroying each other. Mustafa thinks she can harness them to produce propulsion, resulting in space craft that need tiny-to-no fuel to maneuver around in space.

Mustafa invented a way of tapping this quantum impact via what is known as the dynamic Casimir impact. This uses a “moving mirror” cavity, wherever two really reflective extremely flat plates are held close collectively, and then moved slightly to interact with the quantum particle sea. It really is horribly technical, but the end outcome is that Mustafa’s use of shaped silicon plates equivalent to individuals utilized in solar power cells benefits in a net force being delivered. A force, of course, means a push or a pull and in space this equates to a drive or engine.

Propulsion in space is incredibly easy to achieve simply because there aren’t any particles to get in the way, but till now we’ve been entirely reliant on engines to do the work. Engines create propulsion by burning chemical fuels—these fuels are heavy and costly, making some of the crazy exploration we’d like to do impossible. Mustafa’s system could allow the laws physics do the heavy-lifting as a substitute.

Of course, Mustafa requirements to work on the design significantly a lot more and figure out how to get funding for the ambitious adventure. We hope some organization with deep pockets steps up simply because the science is outstanding.

Sources and more information:

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Precocious young physicist Aisha Mustafa just patented a new system that could propel spacecrafts to the final frontier without using a drop of fuel. In short her system taps one of the odder facets of quantum theory, which posits that space isn’t really a vacuum. It’s really filled with particles and anti-particles that exist for infinitesimally…

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An Egyptain teenager has patented a next generation propulsion system that could send spacecraft to other solar systems – without using a single drop of fuel. While it is not quite warp drive, young physicist Aisha Mustafa’s system is based on quantum physics and could see mankind boldly go where no man has gone before.

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