There is no question that our hydrocarbon-based energy system is slowly breaking down. The supply of fossil
fuel is finite and combustion products are steadily polluting our environment. Conventional nuclear energy is
also problematic: the fuel is still in limited supply, undesirable waste products are produced, and there is significant
public concern about the safety of nuclear power plants. But these terrestrial problems pale in comparison to the
likely energy requirements for interstellar travel. For example, consider a hypothetical mission to Alpha Centauri in
a ship the size of a Boeing 757 (i.e. 105 kg). You accelerate at 1g to the midpoint and then decelerate at 1g until you
arrive at your destination 4.3 light-years from Earth. At the midpoint, the ship is moving at 0.95c. For the passengers
the trip takes only 3.6 years whereas 5.9 years go by for those who stay on Earth. A yet-to-be-developed engine that
converts its fuel entirely to energy and beams it out the tailpipe drives your ship with the maximum possible fuel
efficiency. Despite this efficiency, the trip requires a staggering 3.8 x 106 kg of fuel: 38 times the weight of the ship.
The energy required for this ideal one-way trip to Alpha Centauri is about 800 times the present annual energy
consumption of the world.
Faced with such monumental problems humans naturally devise schemes to solve them. Often, the scheme
involves a device that is purported to produce more energy than it takes to run it. Sometimes the inventor naively
thinks his device is simply creating the extra energy. More often the inventor believes that his device is tapping a
new source of energy.
Breakthrough energy claims are nothing new. Recorded history of perpetual motion claims begins in the 13th
century with a simple mechanical device attributed to Wilars de Honecort.1 Leonardo da Vinci toyed with the idea of
a hydraulic perpetual motion machine in his youth.2 In the 1700’s Johann Bessler, a.k.a. Orffyreus, developed a
mechanical perpetual motion machine that was widely witnessed yet remains shrouded in mystery to this day. There
are numerous other devices, primarily invented by charismatic individuals with no particular scientific training. As
science progressed toward formal recognition of the laws of thermodynamics in the mid 1800’s, claims to perpetual
motion became considerably less acceptable but hardly less frequent. In 1870, Henry Dircks eloquently described
claimants to perpetual motion as follows, “A more self-willed, self-satisfied, or self-deluded class of the community,
making at the same time pretension to superior knowledge, it would be impossible to imagine. They hope against
hope, scorning all opposition with ridiculous vehemence, although centuries have not advanced them one step in the
way of progress.”3
Fortunately, things have changed. In our present age of science and technology almost everybody accepts the
laws of thermodynamics. The majority of new energy claims are therefore based upon the idea of tapping a new
source of energy. It is these claims that deserve our attention and are the primary focus of this report.