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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday November 22 2016, @03:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the that-still-doesn't-mean-it-will-work dept.

After months of speculation and leaked documents, NASA's long-awaited EM Drive paper has finally been peer-reviewed and published [open, DOI: 10.2514/1.B36120] [DX]. And it shows that the 'impossible' propulsion system really does appear to work. The NASA Eagleworks Laboratory team even put forward a hypothesis for how the EM Drive could produce thrust – something that seems impossible according to our current understanding of the laws of physics.

In case you've missed the hype, the EM Drive, or Electromagnetic Drive, is a propulsion system first proposed by British inventor Roger Shawyer back in 1999. Instead of using heavy, inefficient rocket fuel, it bounces microwaves back and forth inside a cone-shaped metal cavity to generate thrust. According to Shawyer's calculations, the EM Drive could be so efficient that it could power us to Mars in just 70 days.

takyon: Some have previously dismissed EmDrive as a photon rocket. This is addressed in the paper along with other possible sources of error:

The eighth [error:] photon rocket force, RF leakage from test article generating a net force due to photon emission. The performance of a photon rocket is several orders of magnitude lower than the observed thrust. Further, as noted in the above discussion on RF interaction, all leaking fields are managed closely to result in a high quality RF resonance system. This is not a viable source of the observed thrust.

[...] The 1.2  mN/kW performance parameter is over two orders of magnitude higher than other forms of "zero-propellant" propulsion, such as light sails, laser propulsion, and photon rockets having thrust-to-power levels in the 3.33–6.67  μN/kW (or 0.0033–0.0067  mN/kW) range.

Previously: NASA Validates "Impossible" Space Drive's Thrust
"Reactionless" Thruster Tested Again, This Time in a Vacuum
Explanation may be on the way for the "Impossible" EmDrive
Finnish Physicist Says EmDrive Device Does Have an Exhaust
EmDrive Peer-Reviewed Paper Coming in December; Theseus Planning a Cannae Thruster Cubesat


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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday November 22 2016, @06:04PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday November 22 2016, @06:04PM (#431374) Homepage Journal

    You guys don't seem to understand this thing. You only get tiny amounts in thrust, but with no friction and only microgravity just a tiny bit of continuous thrust will get you moving really fast, but getting up to speed takes a while.

    You're not going to defeat gravity with one of these.

    And the only environmental hazards would be your source of electricity, since this drive doesn't leak anything. Before you get a hoverboard out of this, you're going to have to have the equivalent of a municipal power plant or more in its batteries.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22 2016, @06:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 22 2016, @06:44PM (#431402)

    And the only environmental hazards would be your source of electricity, since this drive doesn't leak anything we know of.

    FTFY. The very fact that it thrusts, together with the very fact that space is homogeneous, strongly suggests that there is something leaking out, even if we don't know what it is.

    Maybe this drive actually exhausts dark matter. Can you exclude that possibility? (Well, if it does, I'd expect the exhaust to be harmless — but the only way to know is to test.)

    Of course as long as it is only useful in space, the exhaust doesn't really matter. I don't think many people care about polluting interplanetary space.

    • (Score: 1) by Demena on Tuesday November 22 2016, @11:43PM

      by Demena (5637) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @11:43PM (#431569)

      Sorry but you appear to be in error. Consider the thrust produced by the Casimir effect. No radiation. The "EM" drive is a Hubble scale Casimir effect. It is relying on radiation (Unruh radiation) that is already there.

      What I like is what it does for Mach

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @06:17AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @06:17AM (#431697)

        "Consider the thrust produced by the Casimir effect."

        Nazi CIS white male bullshit.
        Probably want to rape young girls too.
        AOC should be 25, fucking white males.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday November 22 2016, @06:59PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday November 22 2016, @06:59PM (#431410) Journal

    Maybe you haven't read around. The inventor is claiming to do just that - defeat gravity - with the second generation of emdrive.

    If one version of his devices produces anomalous thrust, the newer claims should at least be taken seriously.

    I'm still waiting for the paper that disproves the first iteration of emdrive. Now we have a peer-reviewed vacuum test.

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