Title: Conditional possibility of spacecraft propulsion at superluminal speeds

Authors: Salvatore Cezar Pais

Addresses: Department of Defense/Department of the Navy, Naval Air Systems Command/NAWCAD, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland 20670, USA

Abstract: The concept at hand deals primarily with the application of the conditional replacement technique (CRT) (Pais, 1991) to Special Relativity Theory. It is observed that under certain physical conditions, the singularity expressed by the relativistic stretch factor 'gamma' as the spacecraft's speed (v) approaches the speed of light (c), is no longer present in the physical picture. This involves the instantaneous removal of energy-mass from the system (spacecraft) when the spacecraft's speed reaches v = c/2. Hence under such conditions, faster than light spacecraft propulsion, is feasible. The original concept at hand does not violate the Special Theory of Relativity, it rather builds on its foundations.

Keywords: faster than light travel; theory of special relativity; spacecraft propulsion; superluminal speeds; conditional replacement technique; CRT; spacecraft speed; space travel.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPACESE.2015.069339

International Journal of Space Science and Engineering, 2015 Vol.3 No.1, pp.89 - 92

Accepted: 11 Mar 2014
Published online: 13 May 2015 *

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