NASA Confirms EM Drive Produces Thrust in Vacuum

[isee]

http://sputniknews.com/science/20150430/1021547280...

Quite excited about this, though I bet they haven't controlled for something at the experiment... like earth's magnetosphere.

It's amazing that potentially a transit to Mars with this would take just 70 days...

[FredClogs]

Mind blowing, I read this no the NASA sight, it's not clear to me if they understand exactly how it works either! The idea that you don't need to carry fuel also seems odd as they put 2.5kW in to produce a few grams of thrust, so I don't really get that.

[Einion Yrth]

Fuel != propellant and in theory you could power it with solar panels. If it works at all, Sonny White is a bit of a maverick and I'll wait for a demonstration vehicle before I'm utterly convinced.

[Eric Mc]

I think you would need to go to the NASA site and see if you can find THEIR reports on this project rather than some unsubstantiated media interpretation.

[Einion Yrth]

This one's possibly slightly more credible. At least the author has a PhD.

[isee]

Eric Mc said:

I think you would need to go to the NASA site and see if you can find THEIR reports on this project rather than some unsubstantiated media interpretation.

It's plastered on various news sites this morning though, all citing nasa as source, albeit with a layman's interpretations.

Either way, I hope it's at the very least a demonstrator of concept's viability.

[FredClogs]

Einion Yrth said:

Fuel != propellant and in theory you could power it with solar panels. If it works at all, Sonny White is a bit of a maverick and I'll wait for a demonstration vehicle before I'm utterly convinced.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-futuristic-em-drive/

They're talking about putting a nuclear reactor on board. They call it "Warp Star" which is a bit disappointing.

[Einion Yrth]

For those interested in, shall we say speculative, future propulsion systems, EM drive is not the only game in town. Mach Effect Thrusters have also shown useful results.

[Foliage]

Eric Mc said:

I think you would need to go to the NASA site and see if you can find THEIR reports on this project rather than some unsubstantiated media interpretation.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-futuristic-em-drive/

[Eric Mc]

Is that an actual NASA site?

Here is a listing of the news items on NASA's own website -

http://www.nasa.gov/news/releases/latest/index.htm...

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 30th April 15:48

[Foliage]

FredClogs said:

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-...

They're talking about putting a nuclear reactor on board. They call it "Warp Star" which is a bit disappointing.

Lockheed have a fusion reactor. They made a breakthrough end of last year, and its currently being tested from what I've read.

[speedy_thrills]

So what's the equal and opposite reaction to EM used in this space thruster?

[Foliage]

Eric Mc said:

Is that an actual NASA site?

Yes and no, NASA have dumped all the test data etc onto the forums of this site as the discussion was going in right direction and the nasa project lead wanted the help to figure out how the engine was giving them the results it was showing ie he wanted to disprove it worked, the prevailing theory was heating (along with a more mundane theory that it was an error in the data collection/sample size), hence the latest test was in a vacuum and it still worked. Nasa are basically doing everything they can to disprove it works, as it shouldn't work.

The 3 threads are worth a read, goes way over my head though. http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=3...

[s2art]

speedy_thrills said:

So what's the equal and opposite reaction to EM used in this space thruster?

If it works the only possibility is some form of focused photons being created to produce thrust. A laser/maser mechanism could do the same thing in principle.

[Foliage]

s2art said:

speedy_thrills said:

So what's the equal and opposite reaction to EM used in this space thruster?

If it works the only possibility is some form of focused photons being created to produce thrust. A laser/maser mechanism could do the same thing in principle.

Ion engines achieve the same thing but requires xenon as fuel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster, its worth a read. These are already in use on probes.

TBH I think if they don't know how it works it probably doesn't work.

[davepoth]

speedy_thrills said:

So what's the equal and opposite reaction to EM used in this space thruster?

They have literally no idea. That's what's so exciting.

[s2art]

Foliage said:

s2art said:

speedy_thrills said:

So what's the equal and opposite reaction to EM used in this space thruster?

If it works the only possibility is some form of focused photons being created to produce thrust. A laser/maser mechanism could do the same thing in principle.

Ion engines achieve the same thing but requires xenon as fuel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster, its worth a read. These are already in use on probes.

TBH I think if they don't know how it works it probably doesn't work.

Sure, but the thing about a photon drive is that it just requires an energy source, no propellant required as you can generate any number of photons in situ.

[davepoth]

Foliage said:

TBH I think if they don't know how it works it probably doesn't work.

That's what they've been trying to figure out for the last ten years, and they cannot find any problem with the test methodology. The only thing left to try is to bolt it to a satellite and see if it works for real, as far as I can tell.

[Foliage]

davepoth said:

Foliage said:

TBH I think if they don't know how it works it probably doesn't work.

That's what they've been trying to figure out for the last ten years, and they cannot find any problem with the test methodology. The only thing left to try is to bolt it to a satellite and see if it works for real, as far as I can tell.

I read the Chinese wanted to strap one to the ISS and test it, if it worked if could be used to correct the ISS's orbit.

[Eric Mc]

The Chinese aren't involved on the ISS.

Nasanews.com is NOT an official NASA site. However, it does seem to be fairly reputable.