On Sat, 30 Nov 2002, Roman Black wrote:

*>Russell McMahon wrote:
*>>
*>> > >*>In space there will be no matter to push against
*>> > >*>and it won't work. :o)
*>
*>> The *suggestion* (NASA patent ?)  is that it DOES work at a reduced level in
*>> a matterless environment but by an as yet unknown mechanism.
*>
*>Lets assume that the NASA vacuum chamber has a
*>finite size, and walls possibly of glass or metal.
*>I've had the hairs on my arm stand up when switching
*>on a big TV set half a metre away. And that PSU
*>*wasn't* optimised for its electrostatic effect. :o)

Really. There are simple ways to make the walls irrelevant (by putting in
shield electrodes with the same potential as the apparatus). Size does not
matter except large chambers take longer to pump out and cost more.

*>And don't most vacuum chambers still have 1% or so
*>air left in them??

You are joking, right ? 1% is about 7.6mm Hg. That's a lot of pressure for
a vacuum! Even a mechanical pump will go down to 1e-3 (0.1%).  An electron
tube will have something like 1e-6 mmHg in it and vacuum chambers for lab
applications can improve that by another 1e-6 or so. You can COUNT on NASA
knowing about these things especially when funding something that
resembles a perpetuum mobile.

Peter

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