May 2024 Mechanical Engineering Blog
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May 13, 2024
NASA Engineer Claims His Company Developed a Revolutionary Propulsion System
NASA Engineer Claims His Company Developed a Revolutionary Propulsion System
NASA Engineer Dr. Charles Buhler claims his company, Exodus Propulsion Technologies has developed a propellantless propulsion system that can generate enough thrust to counteract earth’s gravity. This discovery appears to defy the laws of physics as we know them and if true it has the potential to revolutionize several fields including space travel. Dr. Charles Buhler is a veteran engineer that has been involved in several NASA programs including Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), The Hubble Telescope, and the current NASA Dust Program. He also helped establish the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Regarding his team’s recent discovery Buhler mentioned, “"The most important message to convey to the public is that a major discovery occurred,” he further noted that “this discovery of a New Force is fundamental in that electric fields alone can generate a sustainable force onto an object and allow center-of-mass translation of said object without expelling mass." Buhler's team includes individuals from NASA, Blue origin and the Air Force. The team investigated propellantless drives for decades before focusing on electrostatics. Their devices produced negligible thrust initially, but they improved with each iteration and in 2023 their “New force”- powered drive generated enough thrust to overcome the earth’s gravity. Learn more about this topic here.
May 31, 2024
Gas Emitted by Landfills Could be Converted to Jet Fuel
Gas Emitted by Landfills Could be Converted to Jet Fuel
Researchers at the university of Sydney in Australia recently announced a novel chemical process that makes jet fuel from the methane produced by landfills. The prospect of being able to power jets with a byproduct of our trash is certainly interesting. Professor PJ Cullen from the University of Sydney's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is the lead author of the study, and he explained how the process works in detail. He mentioned that "Non-thermal plasma is an electricity-driven technology which can excite gas at both a low temperature and atmospheric pressure. Essentially, what this means is this approach facilitates the conversion of the gas into value-added products by inducing plasma discharge within forming gas bubbles. The process doesn't require heat or pressure, meaning it requires less energy, making it highly compatible with renewable energy power sources." The new process has the potential to solve two major problems. First of all, the process is able to reduce the amount of methane that is emitted from landfills. Secondly, the process also helps tackle a major problem in the aviation industry. Jets and airplanes burn a lot of heavily refined fuel which is derived from petroleum oil and aside from that there really aren't any efficient alternatives. Using methane from landfills and other sources could provide a solution. Learn more here.
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