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posted by cmn32480 on Monday December 26 2016, @05:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the proof-is-in-the-pudding dept.

A Chinese newspaper and other sources are reporting that China is already testing an EmDrive thruster in space, aboard the Tiangong-2 space station:

[Researchers] in China have announced that they've already been testing the controversial drive in low-Earth orbit, and they're looking into using the EM Drive to power their satellites as soon as possible.

Big disclaimer here - all we have to go on right now is a press conference announcement [archive.is] and an article from a government-sponsored Chinese newspaper (and the country doesn't have the best track record when it comes to trustworthy research).

[...] But what the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) team is saying also corresponds with information provided to IB Times from an anonymous source. According to their informant, China already has an EM Drive on board its version of the International Space Station, the space laboratory Tiangong-2.

[Continues...]

It had been recently suggested that the U.S. is testing an EmDrive aboard the X-37B spaceplane:

In November 2016 the International Business Times claimed the U.S. government was testing a version of the EmDrive on the Boeing X-37B and that the Chinese government has made plans to incorporate the EmDrive on its orbital space laboratory Tiangong-2. In 2009 an EmDrive technology transfer contract with Boeing was undertaken via a State Department TAA and a UK export licence, approved by the UK MOD. The appropriate US government agencies including DARPA, USAF and NSSO were aware of the contract. However, prior to flight, the propulsion experiment aboard the X-37B was officially announced as a test of a Hall-effect thruster built by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Some are already envisioning probes that could reach far beyond the Kuiper belt (thousands of astronomical units) in around a decade. This would allow the exploration of trans-Neptunian objects such as Sedna (around 86 AU from the Sun, with an estimated aphelion of 936 AU) and the hypothetical Planet Nine (estimated to be between 200 and 1,200 AU away).

We must not allow an EmDrive gap.

Also at redOrbit, and Chinatopix, which notes that previous Chinese EmDrive tests have resulted in false positives and that the EmDrive was not publicly listed among the items brought aboard the Tiangong-2 in October.

Previously: EmDrive Peer-Reviewed Paper Coming in December; Theseus Planning a Cannae Thruster Cubesat
It's Official: NASA's Peer-Reviewed EmDrive Paper Has Finally Been Published


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  • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday December 26 2016, @11:11PM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Monday December 26 2016, @11:11PM (#446188)
    History is filled with times when a technology was used before it was full understood. Gunpowder and nuclear energy come to mind, no one understood chemistry of gunpowder when it was in wide spread use and we started building and using fission reactors long before we fully understood the science needed to use it safely, remember all those cracks in the cooling pipes of early reactors? no one knew that high neutron fluxes caused metal to become brittle.

    But I think the biggest reason for China testing the EMDrive in space is very simple; it is a PR victory. Right now the best Russia can do is launch rockets designed a decade ago to a space station from the same era and the USA can't even get a person into orbit on their own anymore. So how will it look to the rest of the world when China sends off a probe to Mars or somewhere that uses technology that will let them get it there in weeks/months instead of months/years while the other "World Powers" can't even get back to LEO with any consistency?
    --
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
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