Mustafa's Space Drive; a hint of the future?

[Berlin Expat]

19-year-old Egyptian physics student Aisha Mustafa is someone we may see again in the media in the future because though young she's patented a new type of propulsion system for spacecraft that makes use of an obscure, and only recently experimentally proven, quantum physics effect.

You can read the rest of the story here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1837966/mustafas-space-drive-an-egyptian-students-quantum-physics-invention

OK, science-y type DU'ers...............read it and let us know what you think. There has to a physicist or two somewhere around here!

I think it's an interesting story, to be honest. Not to mention the sheer value of if this true, and it really is a practical idea and if it ultimately works, I'm just trying to imagine the heads of people like Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Freepers everywhere, et al, exploding over the fact that a 19-year old girl from a Muslim-majority country invented something that would arguably be worth the Nobel Prize.

Also from the article, "Aisha's invention is so promising that her university's staff aided with a patent application. She intends to study the design further in the hope of testing it out for real in space, but as the OnIslam.net site points out she notes that there's no funding for a department of space science and this prevents important research being carried out in strife-ridden Egypt." Sounds like she needs to get some funding from a university or JPL or NASA or something. Maybe we can start a letter-writing campaign to NASA, JPL, or MIT?

[DonCoquixote]

1. And with all due respect to the majority of Muslims

This is the sort of woman that the Fundies will want to wrap in a burqa or hang from a lamppost.

[Berlin Expat]

3. I'm a Muslim myself, and I agree

with you on that one.

Then again, Christian Fundies aren't too terribly different in many regards, aside from the whole burqa thing.

[DonCoquixote]

7. Fundies of all sorts

For example, I live in the home area of Scientology. Now, Some of those folks can be allright, but some of them frankly are creepy, as they polay down the fact that their founder advocated genocide. While I have many bones to pick with the Abrahamic faiths, I have no doubt that any religions that would grow after them would show the same characteristics.

[AverageJoe90]

2. Best of luck to her. nt

[phantom power]

4. If she can extract a net force out of zpe, that would be a Big Fucking Deal

[GliderGuider]

6. No shit.

I won't even go all Luddite on this one. This has the potential to be a real game-changer, and not just in space.

[bemildred]

5. Interesting. Solar sail is a good comparison.

Edit: I'm guessing it would work by using solar collectors or some such external energy source to run the apparatus to obtain a directional drive. No extra mass to haul around, but limited to where you can find an external energy source of adequate power.