Electromagnetic plasma drive?

EgonSpengler

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Supposedly this thing generates thrust without any propellant. I'm no physicist, but...



NASASpaceFlight.com said:
Evaluating NASA’s Futuristic EM Drive
April 29, 2015 by José Rodal, Ph.D, Jeremiah Mullikin and Noel Munson

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.

[cont.]

Science fiction writers everywhere are running for their laptops. Unless this is some kind of long-game 'April Fools' prank. Which would be both disappointing and funny.
 
Despite these reports, Prof. Yang offered no scientifically-accepted explanation as to how the EM Drive can produce propulsion in space.

Bad sign
 
Things is that no one who's looked at it has yet to find a good explanation for how it works but also have managed to shoot down all the explanations that should disprove it (other than conservation of momentum). That NASA is doing testing on it does say a lot.

I'm not saying it will turn out to be a genuine thing but it's yet to be dis-proven.
 
I can't remember if it was this article or another one, but a Chinese lab claim to have generated enough thrust to maneuver a satellite (not launch one, but maneuver it in orbit). A U.S. lab tried to replicate the Chinese results and couldn't.

So, yeah, don't book your ticket for Ceres just yet. But still, we're livin' in the future, man...
 
I read the website you linked to and it states otherwise.

For reference, the thrust levels quoted there (if actually valid) are about an order of magnitude higher than ion/electric propulsion systems currently used in space.
 
Maybe I'm misremembering it. Anyway, the other article was from last Summer and this one is from just the other day, so we can probably assume this one is right.
 

Yeah. I don't know enough about the science to discern whether this is a spectacular breakthrough or or the E-Cat all over again, but I'll remain sceptical until multiple institutions have testet the device with similar results.
 
Oh hey whatever happened with E-Cat. Did they finally get figured out as frauds and lose their business?
 
You see, if there would be a general agreement that the EMdrive works, someone would test it tomorrow in low earth orbit.
That would definitely rule out any measurement errors due to electromagnetic fields, faulty mechanics, and so on. If it accelerates, it works. The experiment is simple and costs probably only about a million dollars. So far, noone tested the EMdrive in space.
 
No that's not how launching things into orbit works.

To give but one of many examples - we've known for decades that solar sails work and yet there has been little orbital work done on them. That's beginning to change now but only decades later.

Nothing put into space is simple, cheap or done in a timely manner.
 
No that's not how launching things into orbit works.

To give but one of many examples - we've known for decades that solar sails work and yet there has been little orbital work done on them. That's beginning to change now but only decades later.

Nothing put into space is simple, cheap or done in a timely manner.

I don't agree with you.
A solar sail is incredibly complex, because you need to have a large area and a very low weight, which is all but easy to achieve. And even then, the effect is tiny to the point that noone bothered.
The EMdrive on the other hand, if these force output claims are even remotely true (which I don't believe), could likely be used in space as it is and would be a major game changer.
 
It's not really as complex as you think. It's silvered mylar in most iterations. And the effect, while tiny, still has a ton of useful applications - anything that saves propellant mass has a use when launching propellant mass costs $10,000/lb.

I digress.

The real point I was trying to make is that things aren't just thrown into space on a whim, no matter how attractive they may seem. Your quip about EMdrive not being put in space says absolutely nothing about how 'real' the EMdrive is.

And I don't even think the thing is real myself, for what it's worth.
 
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