Science news sites are starting to report on a press-release from an outfit called Starmark, headed by Dr. Franklin Felber. On Tuesday Felber will be presenting a paper at the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (how's that for a mouthful?) on his solution to Einstein's gravitational field equation, which the press release contends allows for near-light speed velocities.

The field equation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity has never before been solved to calculate the gravitational field of a mass moving close to the speed of light. Felber's research shows that any mass moving faster than 57.7 percent of the speed of light will gravitationally repel other masses lying within a narrow 'antigravity beam' in front of it. The closer a mass gets to the speed of light, the stronger its 'antigravity beam' becomes.

Felber's calculations show how to use the repulsion of a body speeding through space to provide the enormous energy needed to accelerate massive payloads quickly with negligible stress. The new solution of Einstein's field equation shows that the payload would 'fall weightlessly' in an antigravity beam even as it was accelerated close to the speed of light.

A paper published last summer by Felber appears to contain the math behind this, but I'm afraid it's all over my head. A peer-rewier of the work, though, Dr. Eric Davis of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, is reportedly sold on the idea, though, so it might be worth looking into.