[NewCandle] Schlicher 'drive'

[Kyle R. Mcallister]

Guys,

Read back over the AIAA paper. There's some things that are rather 
strange. In particular...

"[the device] appeared to work, generating an estimated 0.025 Newtons of 
thrust with 12K to 20K Joules if input energy."

...yeah. Now, my comments on this are, simply, "no ******* way." I've 
worked with the discharges from capacitors before, and have seen what 
they can do. 1kJ will blow stuff apart. People build can crushers using 
only a couple hundred Joules, and the coils sometimes explode radially. 
20,000 Joules? This is either a misprint, a mistake, or something 
deliberate. I do remember John telling me not to believe it.

Furthermore, later in the paper, it suggests peak currents of 100 
amperes or more. I figure that's a far cry lower than what you'd get 
with a few hundred uF cap charged to 30kV. I would expect a pulse of 
20KJ to blow the antenna apart. And there is no way this would be 
achieved with the suggested drivers in the patents. Anyone got any ideas 
about this little mystery?

No clear indication is given of the power input waveforms. However, this 
is given. Make of it what you will:

"With its present technological development, a single NEMPS thruster 
module might have the following characteristics.

Average thrust: 0.03 to 0.3 Newtons
Thrust duration: 1 to 5 seconds
Net module mass: 4.5 kilograms
Net module volume: 0.01 meters^3
Duty cycle: 10 hrs or less (time to recharge module batteries)
Input power: 4 amps @ 28VDC = 112 watts
Input energy: less than 1120 watt-hours per cycle

And so that's all I know, besides what I've already said John shared 
with me. Keith, what would you suggest for a pulse width? 1 to 10% duty 
cycle? At say, 2 cps rep rate, that'd be 5 to 50mS. Thoughts?

--Kyle