NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Workshop Proceedings

This document consists of the proceedings from a NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics workshop held in August 1997. The three-day event was organized to assess emerging physics concepts that could potentially revolutionize space flight and enable human travel to other star systems. The workshop served as a foundational step for the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program, which was led by the NASA Lewis Research Center. Discussions during the workshop covered a range of advanced theoretical and experimental topics, including the coupling of gravity and electromagnetism, vacuum fluctuation energy, warp drives, wormholes, and superluminal quantum tunneling. Recognizing that these propulsion goals were far from immediate realization, the workshop placed a special emphasis on identifying research tasks that were affordable, near-term, and credible. The document notes that twelve students were in attendance. Additionally, the archive context mentions that Salvatore Pais, who later became known for his work on the Navy’s triangle craft patent, was working on his PhD at Case Western Reserve University and serving as a NASA Graduate Student Research Fellow at the Glenn Research Center during the time of the workshop, though it is not explicitly confirmed if he attended the event.