The Price of a Turn: Energy and Power for Phase Transit of Macroscopic Payloads
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: What would it cost, energetically, to advance the phase of a macroscopic payload through one full turn? This paper evaluates a stated drive model in which the energy per turn for mass M completed in time T is E = E_ref M (1 s/T)^2 with E_ref = 4.494e+05 J per kilogram at a one-second turn. A 70 kg payload turned in one second then requires 3.146e+07 J delivered at 3.146e+07 W; stretching the turn to sixty seconds lowers the energy to 8.738e+03 J and the power to 145.6 W; an hour-long turn needs 2.43 J at 0.0007 W. A 1000 kg payload turned over an hour costs 0.0000 kWh. The governing lesson is the inverse-square dependence on duration: patience is worth orders of magnitude, and fast macroscopic transit, not slow macroscopic transit, is where the energy problem lives. Computed from stated assumptions; not measured. SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED.
Author: Aldred, William Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225810252
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