| Introduction |
| Casimir's Biography |
| Measurements |
| Zero Point Energy |
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| MEMS and NEMS |
The Casimir force has a long tradition in relationship to travel and exploration.
In the distant past the old seafarers of the ocean going nations were aware of a force with
the ability to cause problems to ships just as they were being moored and all of the hazards
of sea travel were assumed to be over. These old sailors knew that to moor two large ships
parallel to each other was to court disaster, as a mysterious force would cause them to crash
together. We now know that the cause of this force is the difference between the wave energy
between the ships and the wave energy beyond them. Because the wavelength of a wave between
the ships is limited by their separation there is a cut off in the wave energy density between
the ships, which is less than the energy density in the unlimited regions beyond them, and
hence this imbalance provides a force, which moves the ships together. A similar force was
deduced by the Dutch physicist H.B.G. Casimir
in 1948, to exist between pairs of conducting
parallel plates with small separation due to their interaction with electromagnetic radiation
and the resulting difference in wave energy density, in an exact analogy to the old sailors story.
Casimir also realised that the same analogy applied to the interaction of real objects with
zero point fluctuations, or vacuum energy.
The relationship between the Casimir force and transport doesn’t stop with square-rigged sailing ships. There could be important implications for space travel. It turns out that the energy density of vacuum fluctuations is almost infinite and all pervading. If one could find a method to exploit this limitless energy source one could build a space drive, which extracts its energy from the vacuum and enable spaceships to reach the stars. The requirement would be to influence the interaction of the Starship with the vacuum fluctuations in its direction of travel differently to the interaction with the vacuum fluctuations in its wake, perhaps by using attractive and repulsive configurations. The resulting imbalance might then be persuaded to cause propulsion; however such concepts for Casimir drive interstellar starships is clearly very far in the future.
NASA addressed these issues with the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program (which is now currently unfunded). Its aims were to specify the problems that need to be addressed to create a “Space Drive” (Marc Millis – NASA Glenn)
The aim was to use “Horizon Mission Methodology”, in which impossible hypothetical mission goals, consistent with firmly established physics were used in an attempt to force paradigm shift, and not simply provide incremental extrapolations from existing solutions.
The Goal is obviously far from fruition but along the way one might be able to identify affordable research in order to make measurable progress
The following links will take you to further discussion of these points.
Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) Project
First Measurement of Repulsive Quantum Vacuum Forces.