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That reminds me of an idea I had once...I envisioned a magnetic propulsion system, utilizing gyroscopes or whatever (I am NOT well versed in physics), in which a strong magnetic field is created which "attracts" the craft from the front and "repels" the ship from the rear.

Thus the poles for the magnetic field have to be "projected" to a point outside the ship by some sort of field amplifier. The poles have to be reversible to stop.

Also, humans would have to be shielded or isolated from a magnetic field of that strength.

I'm sure this is impossible or someone would have thought of it...but it seems more likely than the other crazy propulsion systems I've read about.

I'm pretty sure that's impossible because you have to fix the magnetic fields to your craft. It would be like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Actually, I think there was a sci-fi book by that name "The Bootstrap Effect" but I'm not sure who wrote it.

If your interested in near future technology for space travel, look up americium 242m or "Two weeks to Mars" on google. It's 100 times as powerful as plutonium. 1 gram I think was suppose to equal 2 tons of jet fuel. For some reason no one around FR knows about or is interested in it.

One last thought is why do we need matter to transmit momentum? Think about it. If you use a powerful laser, it heats up (i.e. transfers momentum) say a propellant which shoots out the back and the rocket goes forward. Why can't there be just electro-magnetic energy that shoots out the back of the rocket and transfers momentum to the universe in general.

Also, check out Myrddin's post to you and "Lifter technology". Someone here said they must be using an "ionic breeze" but according to some of their info it actuall works in a vacuum (which would eliminate that as a theory).