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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
(Score: 1) by nsa on Sunday August 13 2017, @06:38AM
I've been following this news story for years. Sounds like it has been replicated, paired exhaust photons might explain the effect without rewriting established views of the universe. Indeed the power levels and applications such as flying cars sound sketchy. But satellite adjustment thrusters and long space voyages sound like potentially interesting things. I probably have misunderstood the story somewhat, but you clearly have given your implication that replication has not happened. Now, the 10X more efficient version the Chinese claim to have, is something that AFAIK has not been replicated, and AS SUCH IN THAT CASE should be dismissed (after being noted).