Travel in Space: Electric or Fuel?

[Karoka]

Hi, I wanted to ask a basic question.

Can you travel in space using only electricity...? I mean, I only know rockets and Ion trusters. You need fuel for rockets and you need some kind of gas on Ion trusters that can be ionized.

 

[mathman]

In order to accelerate you need some sort of impulse. Any suggestions as to how to do it with electricity?

 

[Drakkith]

As far as we know, no. See here for more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive

 

[Lsos]

Light has momentum, so if you use the electricity to run a flashlight you could veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwly move a spaceship.

But the basic answer to your basic question is yes, you can use only electricity to "travel in space".

Of course if you had an unimaginably powerful flashlight with an unimaginably powerful electricity source, you could theoretically actually have a practical space propulsion system. The power source would have to be so powerful though that you would still require a substantial loss of mass to run it (e=mc^2).

 

[Cosmos2001]

Can you travel in space using only electricity...? I mean, I only know rockets and Ion trusters. You need fuel for rockets and you need some kind of gas on Ion trusters that can be ionized.

Phase-shifted electrodynamic propulsion is a conceptual idea for long journeys in deep space using only electricity.