This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies.(July 2023) |
Salvatore Pais | |
---|---|
Born | Salvatore Cezar Pais Romania |
Occupation(s) | Aerospace engineer, inventor |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Case Western Reserve University |
Thesis | "Bubble generation under reduced gravity conditions for both co-flow and cross-flow configurations" (1999) |
Doctoral advisor | Yasuhiro Kamotani |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Engineer |
Main interests | Physics of low gravity |
Salvatore Cezar Pais is an American aerospace engineer and inventor,currently working for the United States Space Force. He formerly worked at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. His patent applications for the US Navy attracted attention for their potential energy-producing applications,but also doubt about their feasibility,and speculation that they may be scams,pseudoscience,or disinformation intended to mislead the United States' adversaries. [1]
Salvatore Pais attended Case Western Reserve University in Ohio,getting an MS in 1993 with a thesis titled "Design of an experiment for observation of thermocapillary convection phenomena in a simulated floating zone under microgravity conditions". [2] He got a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering in 1999 with a thesis on the subject of "Bubble generation under reduced gravity conditions for both co-flow and cross-flow configurations" for which he endured a number of parabolic flights to produce a low-gravity environment. [3] His doctoral advisers were Yasuhiro Kamotani and Simon Ostrach,who carried out spacelab experiments in low-gravity aboard the space shuttle STS-50 in 1992. [4] Pais's research was sponsored by NASA. [5]
Pais worked as a scientist and aerospace engineer at the United States Navy's Naval Air Station Patuxent River. In June 2019 he left the NAWCAD and moved to the US Navy's Strategic Systems Programs organization. In 2021,he transferred to the U.S. Air Force. [8]
Starting in 2015,he began filing patent applications on behalf of his employers with futuristic-sounding names suggesting potential military and energy-producing applications. No working prototype of any of these concepts was ever developed. [9] These attracted attention,as well as speculation that they may be disinformation intended to mislead the United States' strategic adversaries about the direction of United States defense research. [1]
His patent applications include:
Testing on the feasibility of a High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator (HEEMFG) occurred from October 2016 to September 2019;at a total cost of $508,000 over three years. The vast majority of expenditure was on salaries. The "Pais Effect" could not be proven and no further research was conducted. [8] Brett Tingley wrote for The Drive that "Despite every physicist we have spoken to over the better part of two years asserting that the "Pais Effect" has no scientific basis in reality and the patents related to it were filled with pseudo-scientific jargon,NAWCAD confirmed they were interested enough in the patents to spend more than a half-million dollars over three years developing experiments and equipment to test Pais' theories". [8] Pais remained defiant regarding the veracity of his theories,in an email to The Drive he wrote that his work "culminates in the enablement of the Pais Effect...as far as the doubting SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) are concerned,my work shall be proven correct one fine day...". [8]
Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion exclusively deals with propulsion systems used in the vacuum of space and should not be confused with space launch or atmospheric entry.
A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads up to high speeds. Existing and contemplated mass drivers use coils of wire energized by electricity to make electromagnets, though a rotary mass driver has also been proposed. Sequential firing of a row of electromagnets accelerates the payload along a path. After leaving the path, the payload continues to move due to momentum.
A fusor is a device that uses an electric field to heat ions to a temperature in which they undergo nuclear fusion. The machine induces a potential difference between two metal cages, inside a vacuum. Positive ions fall down this voltage drop, building up speed. If they collide in the center, they can fuse. This is one kind of an inertial electrostatic confinement device – a branch of fusion research.
A tractor beam is a device that can attract one object to another from a distance. The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith in his novel Spacehounds of IPC (1931). Since the 1990s, technology and research have labored to make it a reality, and have had some success on a microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is known as a pressor beam or repulsor beam. Gravity impulse and gravity propulsion beams are traditionally areas of research from fringe physics that coincide with the concepts of tractor and repulsor beams.
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Anti-gravity is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to either the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism and aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction. Examples are the gravity blocking substance "Cavorite" in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon and the Spindizzy machines in James Blish's Cities in Flight.
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Electromagnetic propulsion (EMP) is the principle of accelerating an object by the utilization of a flowing electrical current and magnetic fields. The electrical current is used to either create an opposing magnetic field, or to charge a field, which can then be repelled. When a current flows through a conductor in a magnetic field, an electromagnetic force known as a Lorentz force, pushes the conductor in a direction perpendicular to the conductor and the magnetic field. This repulsing force is what causes propulsion in a system designed to take advantage of the phenomenon. The term electromagnetic propulsion (EMP) can be described by its individual components: electromagnetic – using electricity to create a magnetic field, and propulsion – the process of propelling something. When a fluid is employed as the moving conductor, the propulsion may be termed magnetohydrodynamic drive. One key difference between EMP and propulsion achieved by electric motors is that the electrical energy used for EMP is not used to produce rotational energy for motion; though both use magnetic fields and a flowing electrical current.
Burkhard Heim was a German theoretical physicist known for the creation of a unified field theory called Heim theory. He was particularly interested in the application of his theory to the development of hyperspace travel.
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The British Rail flying saucer, officially known simply as space vehicle, was a proposed interplanetary spacecraft designed by Charles Osmond Frederick. Although the proposed craft required controlled thermonuclear fusion and other futuristic technologies, a patent application was filed on behalf of British Rail in December 1970 and granted on 21 March 1973.
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Subrata Roy is an Indian-born American inventor, educator, and scientist known for his work in plasma-based flow control and plasma-based self-sterilizing technology. He is a professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida and the founding director of the Applied Physics Research Group at the University of Florida.