Frontiers of Propulsion Science
Marc G. Millis · Eric W. Davis
Summary and citation · read the original at the source
In one page
Marc Millis, who ran NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics programme, and Eric Davis assembled eighteen contributors into the first compilation of its kind: an AIAA volume of 737 pages on space drives, warp drives, gravity control and faster-than-light travel, published in a series aerospace engineers actually read. What is striking is the range inside one binding. There are chapters on thrusting against the quantum vacuum and on extracting energy from it; on deriving inertial mass from the zero-point field; on faster-than-light approaches within general relativity, next to a sober chapter on the relativistic limits of ordinary spaceflight. There are bench reports — asymmetrical capacitor thrusters characterised in air and across various gases and pressures, the Woodward effect measured on a micro-newton thrust balance, photon momentum in media. And there are the negatives, carried in the same book: null findings on an electrogravitational patent, nonviable mechanical antigravity devices, lessons from the superconductor gravity experiments, null tests of free-energy claims.
Why it matters hereThis is the field’s reference shelf in a single volume, and it is the proof that chapters 3, 4, 6 and 8 are describing an engineering literature rather than a genre — the same book that publishes the vacuum-energy chapters also publishes the nulls, and then scores which of it deserves the next dollar.
What it claims
01This is the first compilation of emerging science relevant to space drives, warp drives, gravity control and faster-than-light travel — notions that, as the editors put it, are appearing in growing numbers in reputable scientific journals — and it was published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in its main technical series.Table of Contents and Preface, pp. i–xvii; publisher description
Published and peer-reviewed02The vacuum is treated directly as a propulsion and energy resource, in two dedicated chapters: ‘Thrusting Against the Quantum Vacuum’ and ‘On Extracting Energy from the Quantum Vacuum’, alongside a chapter investigating sonoluminescence as a means of energy harvesting.pp. 391–422; pp. 569–603; pp. 605–637
Published and peer-reviewed03Inertia is treated as something derivable rather than assumed: the chapter ‘Inertial Mass from Stochastic Electrodynamics’ carries the zero-point-field account of inertial mass into a book written for propulsion engineers.pp. 423–454
Published and peer-reviewed04Faster-than-light travel is handled as a question inside general relativity rather than as a violation of it — ‘Faster-than-Light Approaches in General Relativity’ sits beside ‘Relativistic Limits of Spaceflight’ and a chapter on the implications of quantum entanglement and nonlocality, with a further chapter supplying the computational tools and sign conventions needed to make such calculations comparable.pp. 471–507; pp. 455–470; pp. 509–529; pp. 651–661
Published and peer-reviewed05The volume carries its own negative results in the same binding: ‘Nonviable Mechanical Antigravity Devices’, ‘Null Findings of Yamishita Electrogravitational Patent’, ‘Gravitational Experiments with Superconductors: History and Lessons’, and ‘Null Tests of Free Energy Claims’ — and it also reports bench measurements, including force characterisation of asymmetrical capacitor thrusters in air and across various gases and pressures, and the Woodward effect on a micro-newton thrust balance.pp. 249–261; pp. 263–291; pp. 229–248; pp. 639–649; pp. 293–327; pp. 329–340; pp. 373–389
Published and peer-reviewed06The book closes with method rather than prediction: ‘Prioritizing Pioneering Research’ sets out how to score which speculative propulsion work deserves support, so that what happens next is decided by relevance, readiness and a discriminating test rather than by enthusiasm.pp. 663–717
What to watch
The way in
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/book/10.2514/4.479953An in-copyright AIAA volume, so this page carries a summary; the publisher’s book page lists every chapter, and each chapter is separately registered with its own DOI and page range, which is where the locators below come from.
How to cite it
Marc G. Millis, Eric W. Davis (2009) Frontiers of Propulsion Science. doi:10.2514/4.479953
Where it sits in the curriculum
The metric, warp drives and wormholesEnergy from the vacuumThe unified pictureInertial mass reduction and transmedium craftThe Pais effectInertia and gravity from the vacuumThe evidence ladder