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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: 3, Informative) by takyon on Sunday August 13 2017, @12:25PM (1 child)
Even a really crappy EmDrive can be useful. It could outcompete ion drives by using solar power and no propellant to counteract orbital decay. Scaling it up could allow it to be used anywhere in the inner solar system, and adding nuclear could allow it to go to the outer solar system.
The technology is supposed to scale better at higher power levels and increased "Q factor".
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/06/emdrive-inventor-shawyers-latest-information-on-military-applications-and-superconducting-emdrive-progress.html [nextbigfuture.com]
Some stupid error could still be behind the thrust observed even if they are measuring thrust above the sensitivity level of the instruments. Results reported by China can't be trusted [retractionwatch.com] until replicated.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 14 2017, @03:59AM
So can light pressure on the solar panels. And you don't even need to generate electricity in order to get that.
Is higher Q factor possible? As I've noted before, it sounds like a overly complex photonic or ion drive. Some of the current observed thrust per input power levels are low enough that one could improve it by merely beaming the microwaves into space.