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posted by martyb on Saturday August 12 2017, @09:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the Would-an-EnDrive-be-half-as-wide? dept.

The man behind the disputed thruster technology EmDrive has published a presentation detailing the third generation of the device. Roger Shawyer envisions EmDrive 3.0 enabling personal flying vehicles and a "space elevator without cables":

[Although] the second generation of the EmDrive can theoretically produce 3 tonnes of thrust for 1 kilowatt of power, it isn't able to move very far, so it is only useful for marine applications or for diverting asteroids, like in the new CBS sci-fi TV drama Salvation.

Shawyer has long said that his aim for inventing the EmDrive was to help get satellites into space cheaply, to enable more applications and new ways for the human race to combat global warming and the energy crisis. Essentially, the EmDrive needs to be able to move and work as well as a conventional rocket, in order to be a viable solution.

To negate these shortfalls, Shawyer's firm Satellite Propulsion Research Ltd (SPR) has also been researching a third generation of the EmDrive, which solved the acceleration problem by reducing the specific thrust.

So instead of getting 3 tonnes of thrust for every kilowatt, substantially less thrust is produced – but it can be used to accelerate the device (more about this theory can be read in a paper Shawyer presented in Beijing in 2013).

Speaking of that TV show, Roger would like some credit please.

Related UK patent application. Also at Next Big Future.

Previously: Finnish Physicist Says EmDrive Device Does Have an Exhaust
It's Official: NASA's Peer-Reviewed EmDrive Paper Has Finally Been Published
Space Race 2.0: China May Already be Testing an EmDrive in Orbit
Physicist Uses "Quantised Inertia" to Explain Both EmDrive and Galaxy Rotation


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:33AM (4 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:33AM (#553067) Journal

    Great, then we can start to get some hard data instead of this shouting match.
    Any hints on when they will launch?

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:45AM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday August 13 2017, @01:45AM (#553069) Journal

    There is an unverifiable claim that China is testing it in space: https://www.rfglobalnet.com/doc/china-claims-em-drive-technology-tested-in-space-0001 [rfglobalnet.com]

    Or even on the X-37B (but USAF officials say it is a Hall effect thruster instead).

    https://www.aerosociety.com/news/flights-of-fancy/ [aerosociety.com]

    A published SPR EmDrive timetable from 2014 gives 2019 as the date for a demonstrator flying vehicle. Fetta’s Cannae Drive is planned to be launched into orbit in a cubesat before late July 2018.

    [...] A claim by the online news publication, International Business Times, in November 2016 that EmDrive type propellantless drives have been flown on China’s Tiangong-2 space laboratory and the US Air Force’s X-37B spaceplane could not be verified by Aerospace. Tiangong-2 was launched in September last year. This space laboratory programme is run by the China Manned Space Program (CMSP) but the CMSP did not respond to email contact.

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