Black hole starship

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In astronautics, a black hole starship is the suggestion that an artificial black hole could be used for spacecraft propulsion in a starship capable of interstellar travel. The concept was first discussed in science fiction, notably in the book Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke, and in the work of Charles Sheffield, in which energy extracted from a Kerr–Newman black hole is described as powering the rocket engines in the story "Killing Vector" (1978). A proposal to create an artificial black hole and using a parabolic reflector to reflect its Hawking radiation was discussed in 2009 by Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland. Their conclusion was that it was on the edge of possibility, but that quantum gravity effects that are presently unknown will either make it easier, or make it impossible. Investigation of the quantum gravity effects show it is not possible to create a black hole from light alone.

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