EM drive actually works???? EAT THAT NEWTONIANS!

[Mystical]

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/nas...ually-work




While some may say that nothing is impossible, that is a word that has been frequently used by experts to describe SPR Ltd’s EmDrive. To some, EmDrive is crazy, junk science that will never amount to anything; however, its inventor Roger Shawyer has stuck by it resolutely and insists that this novel spacecraft propulsion system works.

EmDrive is a highly efficient propellant-less propulsion system that converts microwave energy into thrust inside a sealed chamber. Such a system would be a complete game changer in spaceflight; it could dramatically cut the cost of satellites and space stations, extend the lives of spacecrafts and drive deep-space missions. But there’s a problem- it violates Newtonian laws of physics, in particular the law of conservation of momentum. Critics have therefore claimed that any thrust generated by prototype systems tested so far must be coming from another source.

Despite supposedly being impossible, the work has sparked genuine interest in some. For example, Chinese scientists have independently and repeatedly proven the theory of EmDrive. Just last year in fact, a Chinese team built their own EmDrive and confirmed that it produced 720 mN of thrust, which would be sufficient for a satellite thruster. This system could be powered by solar electricity, negating the need for a bulky propellant. However, the work was largely ignored and scientists were still far from convinced.

Now, the big boys in the field, NASA, have swooped in and tested the viability of a microwave thruster built by US scientist Guido Fetta. The results are in, and it seems Shawyer may have been right after all.

After eight days of work, which involved using a highly sensitive low-thrust torsion pendulum within a stainless steel vacuum chamber, the scientists were able to confirm that around 30-50 micro-Newtons of thrust were produced. Furthermore, they were able to verify that the force was not generated by something other than the test system. While the result may be significantly smaller than those obtained by Chinese scientists, it’s still a positive result, which is impressive to say the least.

For physicists out there to fill their boots, the paper states: “Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.”

According to Wired, that infers it may work by pushing against a cloud of particles and anti-particles that are continuously being produced and disappearing again. NASA has trodden carefully, however, by not addressing the physics of the system and instead solely focusing on whether it works, and that is what they did.

While Fetta’s underlying theory is very different to that of EmDrive, Shawyer claims that the thrusters operate along similar lines. Like Shawyer, Fetta also had a hard time convincing skeptics that the system is valid.

Working microwave thrusters have the potential to revolutionize spaceflight and while this latest research makes no promises, it’s certainly tantalizing.

Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/technology/nas...gMDEjXq.99

[vorlon13]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Maybe China could put one on a satellite and use it for station keeping ?

[Mystical]

NASA confirmed the evidence dear vorlon.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Bullshit! The whole point of the scientific method is that it eliminates subjective value judgments, like what is or is not "extraordinary".

[Minimalist]

Guido Fetta.

I don't know if I could trust a scientist with that name. Maybe a chef.

[Cato]

Guido Fetta.

I don't know if I could trust a scientist with that name. Maybe a chef.

Only if he's sous chef to Enrico Fermi.

[Anomalocaris]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Bullshit! The whole point of the scientific method is that it eliminates subjective value judgments, like what is or is not "extraordinary".

Er, no.

Extraordinary is quite objective and quantifiable. It describes a claim or an appearent observation which is statistically highly improbable in the sense of being many standard deviations away from what one has been led to expect from large available body of other verifiable observations.

When you make a claim against such an overwhelming body of evidence, your claim is extraordinary. You need to provide proof extraordinary enough to be able to stand against the accumulated body of apparently contrary evidence. This is the whole statistical statistical essence of modern science, with its basis in the objective, quantifiable confidence intervals of experimental result.

Don't pretend your ulterior motive is other than to try to pretend your ridiculous claims on behalf of your swedenborgian bullshit can be placed on the same basis as science and the statistic principles behind modern experimental science does not exist to call you out. Now go and masturbate somewhere else.

[Zen Badger]

Three different and independent groups have tested the principle and gotten positive results.

It this isn't science, I don't know what is.

[Anomalocaris]

Independent verification is science, but it is not necessarily proof. Proof depends on the quality and reproducibility of the verification.

Cold fusion was also allegedly independently verified by other groups, until it was found the verifications themselves can't be replicated.

My money is on EMdrive being more like cold fusion than a path to Nobel prize.

[pocaracas]

I don't get it... why shouldn't it work?
EM radiation has a clearly defined linear momentum.
Isn't this sort of the same principle as the solar sail?