Electromagnetic & MHD Propulsion
Moving Things with Magnetic Fields and Plasma
In Plain English
Every electric motor you've ever used, from a fan to a Tesla, works on the same basic principle: electric currents create magnetic fields, and magnetic fields push on charged particles. That push is called the Lorentz force. It's the reason maglev trains float and why particle accelerators can fling protons at nearly the speed of light.
Electromagnetic propulsion takes this idea and applies it to vehicles. Instead of spinning a wheel or burning fuel, you accelerate charged particles (ions) or conducting fluids (plasma, seawater) with magnetic fields to generate thrust. No moving parts, no combustion, no exhaust in the traditional sense. NASA already uses ion drives on deep-space probes. The U.S. Navy has tested magnetohydrodynamic drives in submarines.
Now imagine scaling that up. Not just nudging a spacecraft over months, but generating enough force to move a craft through air, water, and space. That's the leap from proven technology to the kind of propulsion that could explain what witnesses describe as "transmedium" vehicles.
The Science
The Lorentz force
When a charged particle moves through a magnetic field, it experiences a force perpendicular to both its velocity and the field direction. This is the Lorentz force, the foundation of all electromagnetic propulsion. The equation is elegantly simple: F = qv x B, where q is the charge, v is the velocity, and B is the magnetic field strength. By controlling the field, you control the force.
This isn't exotic physics. It's the same force that deflects electrons in your TV screen (if you still have a CRT) and confines plasma inside a tokamak fusion reactor. The question is always one of scale: can you generate enough force to move a vehicle?
Ion drives and electric propulsion
The simplest form of electromagnetic propulsion is the ion drive. Strip electrons from a gas (usually xenon) to create ions, then accelerate those ions through an electric field and shoot them out the back of your spacecraft. Newton's third law does the rest: the exhaust goes one way, the spacecraft goes the other.
NASA's Dawn mission used ion propulsion to visit two asteroids. The ESA's SMART-1 probe reached the Moon on ion power. The thrust is tiny (measured in millinewtons), but because it runs continuously for months or years, the cumulative velocity change (delta-v) exceeds what chemical rockets can achieve. Ion drives are real, proven, and flying right now.
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) propulsion
MHD propulsion works on a different principle. Instead of accelerating individual ions in a vacuum, it accelerates an entire conducting fluid (seawater, ionised air, or plasma) using crossed electric and magnetic fields. Pass a current through a conducting fluid that sits inside a magnetic field, and the Lorentz force pushes the entire fluid in one direction. The vehicle moves in the opposite direction.
Japan built and tested the Yamato 1 in 1992, a 30-metre ship propelled by an MHD drive that pushed seawater through superconducting magnets. It worked, though it was slow (about 8 knots). The U.S. Navy has explored MHD submarine drives because they produce no noise: no propeller cavitation, no mechanical vibration. A silent submarine is a strategically valuable submarine.
The same principle can theoretically work in air. If you ionise the air around an aircraft and pass it through a strong magnetic field, you get thrust without any moving parts. This is sometimes called an "MHD air-breathing engine." It requires enormous magnetic field strengths and a way to ionise the surrounding atmosphere. Challenging, but not physically impossible.
Plasma thrusters
Between simple ion drives and full MHD systems sits a family of plasma-based thrusters are already in widespread use. Hall-effect thrusters use a magnetic field to trap electrons, which then ionise propellant gas and accelerate the resulting ions electrostatically. Thousands of Hall thrusters are operating in orbit today, primarily on Starlink satellites.
More advanced designs include pulsed plasma thrusters (PPTs), which vaporise a solid propellant with an electric arc and accelerate the plasma electromagnetically, and NASA's VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket), which uses radio waves to heat plasma to millions of degrees and a magnetic nozzle to direct the exhaust. VASIMR could theoretically cut a Mars transit from nine months to 39 days, if you can supply enough electricity.
The Pais patents
In 2016-2018, U.S. Navy engineer Salvatore Cezar Pais filed a series of patents that take electromagnetic propulsion to its theoretical extreme. The most discussed is the "Craft Using an Inertial Mass Reduction Device" (US Patent 10,144,532), which describes a vehicle surrounded by a "high energy electromagnetic field generator" that vibrates at extremely high frequencies.
Pais claims this would create a "polarised vacuum" around the craft, effectively reducing its inertial mass and allowing extreme acceleration without the g-forces that would otherwise destroy the vehicle and its occupants. The Navy's Chief Technology Officer personally intervened to get the patent approved, writing to the patent examiner that "the US needs the ability to counter this type of craft."
Whether the Pais patents describe real physics or aspirational theory is hotly debated. What isn't debated is that the U.S. Navy considered them important enough to champion through the patent process, and that they describe, in official government filings, a form of electromagnetic propulsion far beyond anything publicly demonstrated.
Why This Matters for 4Orbs
The MH370 satellite video shows three orb-like objects maneuvering around a Boeing 777 at high speed, matching its velocity, changing direction instantaneously, and (in the thermal footage) appearing to emit significant energy. Whatever these objects are, they require a propulsion system that produces no visible exhaust, operates silently, and allows for extreme acceleration and deceleration.
Electromagnetic and MHD propulsion are the most plausible candidates within known physics. An MHD air-breathing engine could ionise the surrounding atmosphere to create thrust without combustion. A plasma sheath around the craft (exactly what witnesses and thermal footage appear to show) would serve double duty: providing the conducting medium for MHD thrust and reducing aerodynamic drag through a process called magnetoaerodynamic flow control.
The Pais patents describe exactly this kind of system: an electromagnetic field generator creating a polarised local vacuum around a craft, enabling acceleration that would be impossible under normal inertial constraints. The orbs' apparent ability to operate in air and potentially in water (transmedium flight) is consistent with MHD propulsion, which works in any conducting medium.
This doesn't prove the orbs use electromagnetic propulsion. But it establishes that the physics for such a system exists on a spectrum from proven (ion drives, Hall thrusters) through demonstrated (MHD submarine drives) to theorised-and-patented (Pais craft). The gap between "demonstrated" and "what the orbs appear to do" is large, but it may not require new physics, only engineering breakthroughs that haven't been publicly disclosed.
Mainstream vs. Speculative
Ion drives, Hall-effect thrusters, and pulsed plasma thrusters are proven, operational technology; thousands are in orbit today. MHD propulsion has been demonstrated in seawater (Yamato 1). The Lorentz force and MHD equations are textbook physics. VASIMR has been tested in vacuum chambers by NASA.
That MHD air-breathing engines can produce enough thrust for high-speed atmospheric flight. That the Pais patents describe achievable technology rather than aspirational theory. That "inertial mass reduction" via electromagnetic fields is physically possible. The jump from millinewton ion drives to transmedium craft capable of instant acceleration is enormous and unproven in the public domain.
Key Terms
Lorentz force
The force experienced by a charged particle moving through electromagnetic fields. Equal to qE + qv x B. The foundational principle behind all electromagnetic propulsion.
Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
The study of electrically conducting fluids (plasma, seawater, liquid metals) in magnetic fields. MHD propulsion uses crossed electric and magnetic fields to accelerate a conducting medium, producing thrust.
Ion drive
A thruster that ionises a propellant (typically xenon) and accelerates the ions electrostatically. Low thrust but extremely high efficiency (specific impulse), ideal for long-duration space missions.
Hall-effect thruster
A type of ion thruster that uses a magnetic field to trap electrons, which ionise propellant gas in a discharge chamber. The ions are then accelerated by an electric field. Thousands are in orbit on communications satellites and Starlink.
VASIMR
Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket. A NASA-funded thruster concept that heats plasma with radio waves and expels it through a magnetic nozzle. Can trade between high thrust and high efficiency by adjusting plasma temperature.
Transmedium vehicle
A craft capable of operating in multiple mediums (air, water, and space) without separate propulsion systems for each. MHD propulsion is one of the few approaches that could theoretically work across all three.
Key Takeaways
- 1. Electromagnetic propulsion is proven technology: ion drives and Hall thrusters are flying on thousands of spacecraft today.
- 2. MHD propulsion uses magnetic fields to push conducting fluids (seawater, plasma, ionised air) and has been demonstrated in marine vessels.
- 3. Plasma thrusters (Hall, PPT, VASIMR) represent a middle ground between simple ion drives and full MHD systems, with steadily increasing power levels.
- 4. The Pais patents describe an extreme form of EM propulsion, "inertial mass reduction" via high-frequency electromagnetic fields, championed by the U.S. Navy.
- 5. The MH370 orbs' observed behaviour (no exhaust, instant acceleration, possible transmedium operation) is consistent with advanced electromagnetic or MHD propulsion, though far beyond any publicly demonstrated system.