The Halo Drive: Fuel-Free Relativistic Propulsion of Large Masses via Recycled Boomerang Photons

The Halo Drive: Fuel-Free Relativistic Propulsion of Large Masses via Recycled Boomerang Photons. Kipping, D. arXiv e-prints, 1903:arXiv:1903.03423, February, 2019.

Paper abstract bibtex

Gravitational slingshots around a neutron star in a compact binary have been proposed as a means of accelerating large masses to potentially relativistic speeds. Such a slingshot is attractive since fuel is not expended for the acceleration, however it does entail a spacecraft diving into close proximity of the binary, which could be hazardous. It is proposed here that such a slingshot can be performed remotely using a beam of light which follows a boomerang null geodesic. Using a moving black hole as a gravitational mirror, kinetic energy from the black hole is transferred to the beam of light as a blueshift and upon return the recycled photons not only accelerate, but also add energy to, the spacecraft. It is shown here that this gained energy can be later expended to reach a terminal velocity of approximately 133% the velocity of the black hole. A civilization could exploit black holes as galactic way points but would be difficult to detect remotely, except for an elevated binary merger rate and excess binary eccentricity.

@article{kipping_halo_2019,
	title = {The {Halo} {Drive}: {Fuel}-{Free} {Relativistic} {Propulsion} of {Large} {Masses} via {Recycled} {Boomerang} {Photons}},
	volume = {1903},
	shorttitle = {The {Halo} {Drive}},
	url = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019arXiv190303423K},
	abstract = {Gravitational slingshots around a neutron star in a compact binary have 
been proposed as a means of accelerating large masses to potentially
relativistic speeds. Such a slingshot is attractive since fuel is not
expended for the acceleration, however it does entail a spacecraft
diving into close proximity of the binary, which could be hazardous. It
is proposed here that such a slingshot can be performed remotely using a
beam of light which follows a boomerang null geodesic. Using a moving
black hole as a gravitational mirror, kinetic energy from the black hole
is transferred to the beam of light as a blueshift and upon return the
recycled photons not only accelerate, but also add energy to, the
spacecraft. It is shown here that this gained energy can be later
expended to reach a terminal velocity of approximately 133\% the velocity
of the black hole. A civilization could exploit black holes as galactic
way points but would be difficult to detect remotely, except for an
elevated binary merger rate and excess binary eccentricity.},
	urldate = {2019-03-12},
	journal = {arXiv e-prints},
	author = {Kipping, David},
	month = feb,
	year = {2019},
	keywords = {Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology},
	pages = {arXiv:1903.03423},
}

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