The Space Systems Scientific Research Institute outside Moscow is developing a "perpetual" engine for use in space and on Earth.
Valeriy Menshikov, the director and chief scientist at the institute, told ITAR-TASS news agency today that "the institute has been working on a so-called reactive mass emission-free engine for some years". He said "scientists have already developed an original prototype engine".
"The prototype is propelled by the movement within it of a liquid or solid propellant on a fixed trajectory reminiscent of a tornado," Menshikov explained. "Moreover, it is possible that we may observe in this motion some as-yet unknown interaction between the propellant and little-studied fields such as, for example, the gravitational field," he said.
"We have managed to record thrust of up to 28g with this prototype, but only for a few minutes so far," a department head at the institute, Yuriy Danshov, told the agency. "Thrust of this magnitude may appear extremely small, but were it to be applied for 20 minutes to a 100-kg satellite, the satellite's orbit would increase by 2 km," the scientist said.
The developers say this kind of propulsion unit would have a service life of at least 15 years, with a maximum of some 300,000 activations. It would be powered by solar batteries.
Experts believe the device needs to be tested in space or dropped down a deep silo to replicate the effects of weightlessness to maintain the integrity of the experiment in measuring the thrust of the prototype. "Formally, science draws parallels between this research and attempts to build a perpetual motion machine, but big firms in the West are working very seriously and investing heavily in this," Menshikov said.
The Moscow researchers believe the engine would not just be for use in controlling and adjusting space craft orbits and orbital stations. "This environmentally clean engine will have applications in air and land transport in future, too," Menshikov said.

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
BBC Monitoring