German scientists confirm NASA results of propellantless EM drive

Michael

Contributor
Supporter
Feb 5, 2002
25,145
1,721
Mt. Shasta, California
Visit site
✟298,148.00
Faith
Christian
http://www.examiner.com/article/ger...results-of-propellentless-impossible-em-drive

How does the EM Drive work? Tajmar is unsure, but White theorizes that, “the EM Drive’s thrust is due to virtual particles in the quantum vacuum that behave like propellant ions in magneto-hydrodynamical propulsion systems, extracting ‘fuel’ from the very fabric of space-time and eliminating the need to carry propellant.” The NASA Spaceflight site has proven to be an invaluable meeting place for experts and laypeople to analyze and debate all aspects of the EM Drive.

This looks like technology that could revolutionize space travel:

New Horizons took over nine years to get to Pluto. A spacecraft using an EM Drive would get there in 18 months, orbit Pluto, and drop a lander on its surface, according to Wired. Think on that when looking at the images of the dwarf planet at the edge of the solar system.
 

sfs

Senior Member
Jun 30, 2003
10,679
7,745
64
Massachusetts
✟339,555.00
Country
United States
Faith
Non-Denom
Marital Status
Married
Put me down for a $20 bet that whatever is going on there does not violate the conservation of momentum.

ETA relevant quotation from Sean Carroll: '“My insight is that the EMDrive is complete crap and a waste of time,” Carroll tells io9. “Right there in the abstract this paper says, ‘Our test campaign can not confirm or refute the claims of the EMDrive’, so I’m not sure what the news is. I’m going to spend my time thinking about ideas that don’t violate conservation of momentum.”'
 
Upvote 0

essentialsaltes

Stranger in a Strange Land
Oct 17, 2011
32,827
36,129
Los Angeles Area
✟820,796.00
Country
United States
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Legal Union (Other)
Update

In major international tests, the physics-defying EmDrive has failed to produce the amount of thrust proponents were expecting. In fact, in one test at Germany’s Dresden University, it didn’t produce any thrust at all. Is this the end of the line for EmDrive?

Now, however, physicists at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) are saying those promising results showing thrust were all false positives that are explained by outside forces. The scientists recently presented their findings in three papers at Space Propulsion Conference 2020 +1, with titles like “High-Accuracy Thrust Measurements of the EmDrive and Elimination of False-Positive Effects.” (Read the other two studies here and here.)

Using a new measuring scale and different suspension points of the same engine, the TU Dresden scientists “were able to reproduce apparent thrust forces similar to those measured by the NASA team, but also to make them disappear by means of a point suspension,” researcher Martin Tajmar told the German site GreWi.
 
Upvote 0

FrumiousBandersnatch

Well-Known Member
Mar 20, 2009
15,258
8,056
✟326,229.00
Faith
Atheist
Update

In major international tests, the physics-defying EmDrive has failed to produce the amount of thrust proponents were expecting. In fact, in one test at Germany’s Dresden University, it didn’t produce any thrust at all. Is this the end of the line for EmDrive?

Now, however, physicists at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) are saying those promising results showing thrust were all false positives that are explained by outside forces. The scientists recently presented their findings in three papers at Space Propulsion Conference 2020 +1, with titles like “High-Accuracy Thrust Measurements of the EmDrive and Elimination of False-Positive Effects.” (Read the other two studies here and here.)

Using a new measuring scale and different suspension points of the same engine, the TU Dresden scientists “were able to reproduce apparent thrust forces similar to those measured by the NASA team, but also to make them disappear by means of a point suspension,” researcher Martin Tajmar told the German site GreWi.
Not entirely unexpected - the forces they were measuring were so small that experimental error always seemed the most likely explanation.
 
Upvote 0