What the Drive Does
The Kozlov-Tanaka Drive (KTD) produces a measurable thrust of approximately 40 millinewtons per kilowatt of input power by generating an asymmetric spacetime curvature gradient around the device. It does not expel reaction mass. It does not use electromagnetic propulsion. It does not violate conservation of momentum in any way that the team's theoretical physicist can identify — though she acknowledges, in the paper's supplementary materials, that "the mechanism by which conservation is maintained is not yet fully understood."
40 millinewtons is almost nothing. A standard aerosol can produces 10,000 times more thrust. But the KTD operates in vacuum, produces thrust continuously, requires no propellant, and can in principle be scaled. A 10-tonne spacecraft equipped with a KTD array producing 40 newtons of thrust would, starting from low Earth orbit with no drag losses, reach Mars in approximately eleven months. With improvements in power density, that number becomes more interesting.
The Dialogue That Kept the Patent Office Awake
Dr. Kozlov: "The key insight was that you don't need to move a mass to move through space. Space itself moves — this is what expansion of the universe means, it's what gravitational waves are. We are simply creating a very small, very controlled, very local version of that movement."
Dr. Akira Tanaka (co-inventor): "The power requirements to produce useful thrust are currently prohibitive for large vehicles. But we're not trying to build a spaceship today. We're demonstrating a principle. The principle is sound. The engineering will follow."
Dr. Rosa Ferrara (theoretical review, ESA): "I've spent three months trying to find the error in their mathematics. I cannot find it. Their model is internally consistent. The device produces the effect it predicts. I do not know what this means for propulsion physics, and I would encourage caution before we call it a breakthrough. I would also encourage extreme urgency in replicating the experiment."
Dr. Kozlov: "Fourteen independent replication attempts have been conducted. Twelve produced positive results within the predicted range. The other two had power supply issues."
👥 How OCIPO Prepares Teams for This Transition
A viable reactionless drive would collapse the economic model of the launch industry, transform military space strategy, and create an entirely new class of deep-space commercial opportunity within a single generation. OCIPO works with aerospace companies, defence contractors, and space-tech investors to build the strategic scenario planning and workforce development capabilities needed to navigate a propulsion revolution — ensuring that when the engineering matures, the organisations positioned to use it have already built the human infrastructure to act.