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An article at NasaSpaceFlight.com is claiming that the superficially reactionless EmDrive has again been tested at NASA Eagleworks, this time in hard vacuum, and the anomalous thrust is still being detected:
A group at NASA's Johnson Space Center has successfully tested an electromagnetic (EM) propulsion drive in a vacuum – a major breakthrough for a multi-year international effort comprising several competing research teams. Thrust measurements of the EM Drive defy classical physics' expectations that such a closed (microwave) cavity should be unusable for space propulsion because of the law of conservation of momentum.
With the popular explanations of thermal convection or atmospheric ionization being ruled out by operation in vacuum, and thrust thousands of times greater than expected from a photon rocket, is it time to start taking the EM Drive seriously as a fundamentally new form of propulsion, and possibly a door to new physics?
Roger Shawyer, the inventor of the EmDrive, claims that the device's efficiency will scale even further with greater levels of power, potentially enabling fast interstellar travel powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator or nuclear fission.
Previously: NASA Validates "Impossible" Space Drive's Thrust
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday May 02 2015, @03:00AM
Maybe this is propelling "Daaarrrrrk Maaaatter".
"But what is this Dark Matter of which you speak?"
"Nobody Knows".
Seriously, given everything else that has been pinned on dark matter, I'm surprised some hasn't made such claims already.
The only question remaining, is were these experiments detected by the aliens? Will the now be forced to come and wipe us out before this gets out of hand?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2015, @05:02AM
Someone has. When this was going around last time I thought of that, and with a little searching found someone else who had thought of it earlier.
This vacuum test makes it a little more likely, but it's still a very long shot.