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.