NASA scientists say EM drive works...without fuel...

[beenherebeforeagain]

just saw this article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...le-emdrive-physics-peer-review-space-science/

The upshot is that by bouncing microwaves around in a chamber, you can send vessels throughout the solar system...

Sounds cool, defies current understanding of physics, and could pave the way to comparatively inexpensive space probes and crewed missions....

 

[David1967]

just saw this article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...le-emdrive-physics-peer-review-space-science/

The upshot is that by bouncing microwaves around in a chamber, you can send vessels throughout the solar system...

Sounds cool, defies current understanding of physics, and could pave the way to comparatively inexpensive space probes and crewed missions....

Super cool. Love this stuff. Exciting times we live in.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I enjoy this video on this drive, because it is a skeptic discussing the Thermodynamic aspect. He says if the EM Drive breaks the laws of Physics then he promises to eat his hat.

 

[Quetzal]

Awesome! Here is another project that works without fuel as well. It is called the "solar sail". Have a look:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

 

[Revoltingest]

I say we should just feed @Quetzal some spice, & let him fold space for us.

 

[Quetzal]

I say we should just feed @Quetzal some spice, & let him fold space for us.

Fold space, you say? Like this?

 

[Papoon]

I say we should just feed @Quetzal some spice, & let him fold space for us.

I'll supply the melange, and some help from Chapterhouse.

 

[Revoltingest]

Fold space, you say? Like this?

Clever you are....you know of origami applications to solar arrays.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Just followed the link to the journal article...while I only in general get the engineering type-stuff, the design of the experiment does preclude what seems to me to be the most obvious sources of error, although they do note a couple of things that would require a larger or more extensive setup to effectively eliminate (such as waste heat)(hey, that's a funny--they could eliminate waste heat as an error by more effectively eliminating waste heat...).

As a practical system, 1 microNewton thrust per kilowatt means quite a bit of electricity would be needed...but then, they report that this system is about two orders of magnitude (~100 times) more thrust than solar sails and laser systems...It might not be a good system for getting to orbit, but once there, it would have pretty good performance compared to other systems...given a sufficient power source...