Is emission-less propulsion possible? I believe it is...

[mikelewis]

23. Correct! However... it's much less than you think... I was shocked too

Welcome to the crazy world of angular momentum. The idea is once you turn the linear momentum into angular momentum, the energy that's in rotation is conserved. Think about a basketball spinning on a persons finger. That energy is conserved and slowly dissipates... so yes, there is indeed a small loss, it's just angled away from the direct line of force exerted by the main propulsion event... which is the explosion in the bullet. The gun fires and the recoil from accelerating the mass of the projectiles propels you in the opposite direction of the slugs. The arc does lose some energy but not as much as you think and then whatever is left is then added to the system once the slugs are recaptured by the device or ship.

Here's the steps...

Bullet explodes. Propulsion of the slug causes an equal and opposite (proportionately... Newton is still right) causing you to go in the opposite direction. Think of you just pushing off against the back of the bullet... just really hard.

You then capture the bullet in an arc.... a tube or even a string... fire the bullet at the correct angle to induce rotation and then tether it... easy peasy...guiding the projectile into the arc which in turn conserves the angular momentum.

Once the bullet has reach 180 degrees and is now traveling in the same direction as you, the bullet hits the target... you... and you capture them and all the remaining force.


Now here's also a neat little trick...

If you cut the radius while it's in the arc... it comes out faster than when it flew in. Think of the figure skater, retracting the arms increasing velocity... That's the centripetal force formula in action. That formula says that the energy in the system is equal to the mass times it's velocity square... divided by the radius. That means.... the more the radius shrinks the greater the velocity and the greater the force needed stop it. That's why they say physics breaks down in the center of a black hole... all that mass and velocity with almost no radius... and when you add the Pauli Exclusion principle into that mix.... things get a little complex in there. The Pauli Exclusion principle implies at some point we are going to run into torque and that means the centripetal force formula and well... you wind up with more energy than is in all of the universes together. That's a problem modern physics has... I'm ok with it but a real scientist can't reconcile that math.