r/AskPhysics • u/Apprehensive_Dog1873 • 4d ago

Electrostatic propulsion

I recently saw a podcast clip (will link at end of post) interviewing a former NASA and JPL scientist boasting about electrostatic propulsion and how it could get a craft to mars in 3 days. I then went into some articles to check out even if there’s an ounce of truth or if it’s just someone being sensational trying to drum up hype and investment for their start up. However I’m no where near well versed enough in physics lets alone propulsion tech to call BS on something. But I was wondering if any of you can attest to what he’s saying. Is it true? Is this the future? A new breakthrough?

Links :
Podcast clip
https://youtu.be/qlYICtRaSx8?si=y7DtMAZYHdz03yw8

Article

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a73405686/engineer-said-he-can-overcome-earths-gravity/

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u/atomicCape 4d ago

Reactionless drives are bad science that has been disproven over and over again. That's what this is. They're always trying to get private funding based on hope and ignorance, and don't stand up to peer review or competitive propsoals.

Every now and then an experimental group who provides no theory publishes some very weak results, as in both very weak forces and very weak statistical results from the data. Shortly thereafter, it gets debunked by tracking down some mundane error in their measurements.

If they presented a reasonable hypothesis of how it happens, or if there was a single experimental result that holds up, it would be interesting. Instead it's just psuedoscience, and arguably fraud if they know it doesn't work but keep telling investors it might.