Musing On The Possibility Of A Genuine Dean Drive

[SaxonViolence]

Has anyone ever read anything about the "Dean Drive"?

 

You all do know what I'm talking about.....

 

The Dean Drive was claimed to take Rotary Motion and turn it into Linear Acceleration.

 

Mount a Fan on a Skateboard, and you've got the idea.....

 

Only the fan works through the intermediary of the air.

 

Seal a Dean Drive Air-Tight in a Space Ship--and as you feed spin to a flywheel, somehow the Rotary Motion is "Converted" into Linear Motion--and the Ship flies.

 

It has largely been discounted as Crack-Brained--and it probably was.....

 

But Jerry Pounelle wrote a thought-provoking Essay some years ago, and made the following points:

 

Number One: Suffice it to say that Dean was Neurotic and Paranoid. Several times he supposedly revealed the "True" inner workings of his device, and shortly thereafter yelled "Psyche!!!"

 

None of which Logically preclude him having invented a Genuine Device.

 

Secondly, while a Dean Drive might turn out to be impossible in the real World; should it turn out to actually be possible, it wouldn't violate any of the fundamentals of Physics.

 

Thirdly, Pournelle and several others who got to handle Dean's device said that it pushed upward Hard!

 

Pournelle said that theoretically, if one timed his harmonics right, he might be able to weigh less on bathroom type scale--not because of Antigravity, but because he'd found a way to Bollix the system.

 

He allowed that the Dean Drive's apparent thrust could also be illusory--but still he wondered.

 

 

Pournelle said that If one had a Dean Drive, getting to the Planets would be as simple as building a "Nuclear Submarine" in Orbit; hook the Reactor to the Flywheel, and GO!

 

Another point--even if Dean never perfected a "Dean Drive"--even if all his methodologies were wrong--that still doesn't rule out the (slight) possibility that such a device is possible.

 

Now the Musing Part:

 

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we have a working Dean Drive.

 

With no need to jettison Mass to gain Delta-Vee, transport becomes very economic indeed. Also the Practical Size of our Spaceships increases dramatically.

 

If I'm not Mistaken, Nuclear Submarines stay submerged for months at a time. (I know that they sometimes stay down six months at a time.)

 

With the large Freight Carrying Capacity almost unlimited power available from a Sub-Type Nuclear Reactor--all sorts of Air Regeneration schemes become possible--and the ability to carry far more Oxygen, Food and Water than anyone ever foreseen.

 

The ship should be faster--much faster-- than any of the feeble Rocket Drives we've imagined.

 

We're not sending five or six Scientist to Mars--or Ceres--or wherever. We're now able to send two or three hundred people at a time, and tons and tons of Gear.

 

Okay. If you or I stepped forward with a simple {Once Created} Dean Drive tomorrow Morning.....

 

How long until someone started work on our Giant Nuclear Space Ship?

 

Do you figure that they'd be aiming for a Fleet, at least as large as our one-time fleet of "Space Shuttles"? How soon would we have one?

 

How many other nations would join the New Space Race?

 

Paradoxically, I can't see a Dean Drive being any great help in boosting stuff into Earth Orbit--so it wouldn't really bring the day of genuine Space Stations (That look like Spoked Wheels and spin to create Centripetal "Gravity"); O'Neil Colonies or Moon Bases--except as more money and resources were thrown at them, as secondary consequences.)

 

Also--How much power could a reasonable-sized reactor produce? What fraction of the power Could we afford to divert to the Drive (and how much power could the Drive handle?)

 

And assuming a very pessimistic 30% efficiency--how fast would you expect the Space Ships to be?

 

{While we may use Nuclear Submarines as a Rough Inspiration--our ships will have much lighter skins, and there is no need to make them Aerodynamic.

 

We could make them Sphere's or Cubes--except that would make achieving Artificial spin Gravity Problematic....}

 

Well, just anybody who has any comments on any unforeseen consequences, or facts of Economics or Human Nature that I'm overlooking.....

 

Comments Please.

 

Saxon Violence

[Mister Agenda]

It would be nice if it could work. I'm not qualified to judge, but I like the name.