On the Yubileiny small spacecraft, Russian scientists are conducting an experiment to overcome gravity using a fundamentally new engine called gravitsapa, said Major General Valery Menshikov, director and scientific director of the Maksimov Research Institute of Space Systems
According to Menshikov, the engine is being developed for the Soyuz-Sat-O spacecraft, which is part of the multifunctional space system (MFKS) of the Union State of Russia and Belarus. This engine is "ablative", in it "under the action of a high-voltage discharge, the working medium evaporates - fluoroplastic and traction is formed."
"A device for continuous movement without the consumption of a working medium has already been tested in terrestrial conditions," Menshikov said. Conventionally, the development was called "gravicapa" (as in the famous film by Georgy Danelia "Kin-dza-dza"). “It is designed for any spacecraft, especially nanosatellites. In this case, the mass of the propeller will be reduced to several tens of grams. The main thing now is to prove that it works,”Menshikov said.“I’ll make it clear right away: we are not inventing a perpetual motion machine. For the Soyuz-Sat-O spacecraft, which is part of the multifunctional space system (MFKS) of the union state of Russia and Belarus, we have developed four types of new engines at once: laser-plasma, water, inertial and ablation. We are creating the latter together with a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Department of Energy, Mechanical Engineering,mechanics and control processes) Garry Alekseevich Popov. In this engine, under the action of a high-voltage discharge, the working fluid - fluoroplastic - evaporates and traction is formed. It is he who will be installed on the Soyuz-Sat-O.
How far have you come in creating an engine without jet mass?
- First we conducted an experiment with mercury. We got a very good result. But, unfortunately, mercury is dangerous and capricious, so we moved on to experiments with massive solids that move along a certain trajectory, sometimes with acceleration, sometimes with deceleration. A device for continuous movement without the consumption of a working medium has already been tested in terrestrial conditions.
Did you name it?
- Conditionally - "gravitsapa" (as in the famous film by Georgy Danelia "Kin-dza-dza". - Ed.). It is designed for any spacecraft, especially nanosatellites. In this case, the mass of the propeller will be reduced to several tens of grams. The main thing now is to prove that it works.
Does it work?
- In May 2008, from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the Rokot launch vehicle launched into space the Yubileiny small spacecraft. The "gravicapa" is installed on it. For a year and a half, new devices and systems have been tested. Recently, these experiments ended, and we were finally able to start testing our propulsion system. It will work for at least 15 years, and the maximum number of inclusions can reach 300 thousand.
How did you come up with the idea to create a "gravity"?
- Around 2000, Spartak Mikhailovich Polyakov, a scientist and talented engineer, came to me. In one of the poems, written a few months before his death, he identified himself with the "interstellar wanderer." All his life he worked on the creation of a gravitational engine. Together with his son Oleg Polyakov, he tried to supplement Newtonian mechanics with a simple equation linking the rotational motion of mass with its own gravitational field. I saw in Polyakov that there is a certain force that allows you to maintain a structure weighing 40 kg in suspension, and I realized that this problem should be dealt with.
- However, Newton, as you know, did not find the source of the gravitational field.
- As a scientist, I perfectly understand that the potential of chemical engines has been exhausted. We will not fly to distant planets on it. You have to do something else, use gravity, nuclear power or a resonant engine or whatever - there are many options.
Academician Evgeny Aleksandrov, member of the Commission for Combating Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, once said: “New discoveries cannot deny what is already known” …
- The basis of the new method of movement is the strict observance of the law of conservation of energy and its transformation from one form to another with a nonequilibrium redistribution of the kinetic energy of translational motion between the parts of the system. In this part of physics, I do not deny what is already known to everyone. But I also work in an area where no one knows anything.
Our country has always shown considerable interest in gravity. Back in 1960, a closed resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU was issued, where science was set, in particular, the tasks: to develop new sources of energy and new principles for obtaining traction without ejecting mass. If science copes with the first task at the very least, then in the solution of the second it is marking time.
They say that you spent billions of rubles from the Ministry of Defense on your "gravicapa" …
- We carried out all our research, one might say, on a voluntary basis. Experimental installations were made by enthusiasts with their own hands. It is now possible to re-calculate the cost of kilowatt-hours, strips of iron and electric motors spent on experiments. The amount is small and is taken from the profit we received from the main work. Our engine is now the last operating unit on the platform of the Yubileiny small spacecraft. It's time to test it out in space.
Anyone interested in your developments?
- I was officially invited to the USA, Thailand, Sweden, so that I would continue to work there on the creation of engines based on new principles of obtaining thrust without mass emission. But over the decades of service in the army (from the platoon commander at the cosmodrome to the head of the cosmodrome and the head of the institute), I became akin to the idea that I needed to work in my own country, so I did not seriously consider these proposals.
What is your institute working on now?
- We have four main directions: ensuring the launches of Proton and Rokot rockets, creating a multifunctional space system of the union state of Russia and Belarus, space navigation, diagnostics of launch and technical complexes at cosmodromes, as well as construction buildings and structures.
However, I have big doubts that we will achieve success with such a frenzied rebuff from people who do not want to dare, but we must try. If we had the money and time, I'm sure we would already have a new engine for spacecraft.