The Impossible EM drive

[Mikee]

Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio-Frequency Cavity in Vacuum

Peer reviewed EM drive paper.  The "Impossible" EM drive (violates Newton's law) appears to work.

From the discussion:

 

"Pilot-wave theories are a family of realist interpretations of quantum mechanics that conjecture that the statistical nature of the formalism of quantum mechanics is due to an ignorance of an underlying more fundamental real dynamics, and that microscopic particles follow real trajectories over time just like larger classical bodies do."

 

Well, that's a relief.

 

[BaalChatzaf]

27 minutes ago, Mikee said:

Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio-Frequency Cavity in Vacuum

Peer reviewed EM drive paper.  The "Impossible" EM drive (violates Newton's law) appears to work.

From the discussion:

 

"Pilot-wave theories are a family of realist interpretations of quantum mechanics that conjecture that the statistical nature of the formalism of quantum mechanics is due to an ignorance of an underlying more fundamental real dynamics, and that microscopic particles follow real trajectories over time just like larger classical bodies do."

 

Well, that's a relief.

 

from http://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-has-trialled-an-engine-that-would-take-us-to-Mars-in-10-weeks

But before we get too excited (who are we kidding, we're already freaking out), it's important to note that these results haven't been replicated or verified by peer review, so there's a chance there's been some kind of error. But so far, despite a thorough attempt to poke holes in the results, the engine seems to hold up.

 

It does not count until replicated by independent experimenters.  But it sounds very interesting.  At last, an engine  they is not a modern version of a Tang Dynasty rocket.   I hope it pans out.

[Mikee]

Another article suggests it has been peer reviewed:

http://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-nasa-s-peer-reviewed-em-drive-paper-has-finally-been-published

I want to live at least another 50 years...

[BaalChatzaf]

29 minutes ago, Mikee said:

Another article suggests it has been peer reviewed:

http://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-nasa-s-peer-reviewed-em-drive-paper-has-finally-been-published

I want to live at least another 50 years...

I saw a journal article  which was peer reviewed.  I am talking about replicating the result  by independent experimenters.  A scientific result like that needs to be replicated independently at least twice before it is taken seriously.   Assuming the effect is genuine (I hope it is)  then t here is the matter of scaling it up so it is a practical device.

I have been hoping for some time that  an electromagnetic drive  or on ion drive could be developed to get us beyond rockets.  Rockets go back to the Tang Dynasty in China  and their effect is a manifestation of Newton's third law (action/reaction) which is a special case of the conservation of momentum. 

This E.M. drive still has to conform to  the basic conservation laws;  conservation of energy, conservation of momentum and conservation of angular momentum. Any true reactionless drive would violate the conservation of momentum.   You can be sure that such a result will be regarded very skeptically and it would take meticulous experimental demonstration  to  falsify the conservation of linear momentum.   I think the article you referenced is a bit premature.  The physics community is going to need a lot of proof before it will accept that the conservation of momentum has been falsified. 

The conservation laws are the consequence of certain basic symmetries that occur in nature.  A physical effect that violated one of the basic conservation laws would  would stand physics on its head.  

There are other possible energy sources that can be applied to propulsion. For example the Casimyr Effect  (vacuum energy)  It has been shown to exists but no one has been able to exploit it (so-far) to produce useful physical work. 

See  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_resonant_cavity_thruster  for more on resonant cavity thrust