Related papers: Assessing Hypothetical Gravity Control Propulsion
Alternative theories of gravity may serve to overcame several shortcomings of the standard cosmological model but, in their weak field limit, General Relativity must be recovered so as to match the tight constraints at the Solar System…
Large contributions to the near closure of the Universe and to the acceleration of its expansion are due to the gravitation of components of the stress-energy tensor other than its mass density. To familiarise astronomers with the…
The minimum-fuel orbital transfer is analyzed in the case of a launcher upper stage using a constantly thrusting engine. The thrust level is assumed to be constant and its value is optimized together with the thrust direction. A closed-loop…
The design of mission scenarios for the flyby investigation of nearby star systems by probes launched using directed energy is addressed. Multiple probes are launched with a fixed launch infrastructure, and download of scientific data…
Accurate gravity field calculations are necessary for landing on planets, moons, asteroids, minimoons, or other irregularly shaped bodies, but current methods become increasingly inaccurate and slow near the surface. We present high…
Extragalactic relativistic jets are engines able to carry out to large distances a huge amount of power, not only in the form of radiation, but especially in the form of kinetic energy of matter and fields. As such, they can be thought as…
Modified theories of gravity provide us with a unique opportunity to generate innovative tests of gravity. In Chameleon f(R) gravity, the gravitational potential differs from the weak-field limit of general relativity (GR) in a mass…
The Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) enables resolved imaging and spectroscopy of nearby terrestrial exoplanets, but useful science begins only after a spacecraft reaches roughly 650-900 astronomical units (AU). A 20 yr lower-bound trip to…
All known interstellar transportation methods encounter monumental technological or engineering roadblocks, or even rely on speculative unknown science. In particular light of the recent public excitement and ensuing disappointment…
Einstein's equations admit solutions corresponding to photon rockets. In these a massive particle recoils because of the anisotropic emission of photons. In this paper we ask whether rocket motion can be powered only by the emission of…
A propulsion concept in which a spacecraft interacts with high-velocity pellets and the interstellar medium is proposed. The pellets are slower than the spacecraft and are accelerated backwards as they are overtaken, imparting a forward…
Observations provide increasingly strong evidence that the universe is accelerating. This revolutionary advance in cosmological observations confronts theoretical cosmology with a tremendous challenge, which it has so far failed to meet.…
Previous studies suggest that the estimated maximum accretion rate from approaching high velocity clouds (HVCs) on the Galactic disk can be up to ~ 0.4 solar mass per year. In this study, we point out that the hydrodynamic interaction…
If general relativity is the correct theory of physics on large scales, then there is a differential equation that relates the Hubble expansion function, inferred from measurements of angular diameter distance and luminosity distance, to…
Due to its relatively large eccentricity and proximity to the Sun, Mercury's orbital motion provides one of the best solar-system tests of relativistic gravity. We emphasize the number of feasible relativistic gravity tests that can be…
We characterize stellar, gas, and dark matter mass distributions for 17 nearby massive disk galaxies from the PHANGS sample. This allows us to compute the gravitational potential that vertically confines the interstellar gas and determines…
The lack of a well-established solution for the gravitational energy problem might be one of the reasons why a clear road to quantum gravity does not exist. In this paper, the gravitational energy is studied in detail with the help of the…
It is now possible to partially deflect gravitation away from an object so that the gravitational attraction on the object is reduced. That effect makes it possible to extract energy from the gravitational field, which makes the generation…
A method for asteroid deflection that makes use of a spacecraft moving back and forth on a segment of a Keplerian orbit about the asteroid is studied with the aim of optimizing the initial gross mass of the spacecraft. The corresponding…
There are very few direct experimental tests of the inverse square law of gravity at distances comparable to the scale of the Solar System and beyond. Here we describe a possible space mission optimized to test the inverse square law at a…