EmDrive — The Physics-Defying Thruster That NASA Is Puzzled Over
The laws of physics have been broken. The impossible has been achieved and it’s puzzling the greatest minds on the planet. I am talking about the EmDrive, a thruster that has been making major headlines for over a year and which has been shrouded in hype, controversy and debate.
The EmDrive
The EmDrive stands for Electromagnetic Propulsion Drive. It was invented by an English scientist named Roger Shawyer. Although it was invented in the early 2000s, it has only been getting the spotlight more recently.
Image Credits (English scientist Roger Shawyer with the EmDrive)
Basically, it is an engine that provides thrust to a spacecraft by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container. To power the microwaves, solar energy is used, meaning, there is absolutely no need for a propellant.
You read that correctly. For the first time in history, we have an engine that doesn’t require fuel to run and in doing so, it breaks a fundamental law of physics and everyone is absolutely freaking about it.
The law in violation is the Law of Conservation of Momentum, which states that for anything to be propelled forward, some kind of propellant needs to be pushed out in the opposite direction. Since, the EmDrive doesn’t need any fuel, it violates that law.
Recent Developments and Breakthroughs
- As it violates one of the most fundamental laws of physics, the EmDrive has faced and is still facing a lot of skepticism. Many physicists have straight out denied that such a system could even exist.
- But, independent teams from the US, UK and China have all replicated the drive and showed that it actually works, and things got more interesting from there and NASA itself decided to step in and test it out last year.
Image Credits (A prototype of an EmDrive)
- In May, 2015, NASA reported that they had tested out the drive and it seemed to work. Moreover, they ruled out the possibility of any errors by conducting the tests in a vacuum. They also reported that they would conduct a range of tests to replicate the phenomenon every time.
- In November, 2015, NASA reported that they had upgraded their experimental protocol to rule out even the slightest chance of errors and the drive still seemed to be producing thrust without any fuel.
- In 2016, NASA Eagleworks’ paper on the EmDrive passed a peer review process and it is soon going to be published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power. This increases the credibility of the drive and brings it one more step to becoming a reality.
- Just recently, Guido Fetta, CEO of Cannae Inc, announced that he would be launching the ‘Cannae Drive’ which is based on Roger Shawyer’s original EmDrive, into space, which will demonstrate once and for all whether the drive does actually work in space.
- Engineers in China and Shawyer himself are also working on their own EmDrives that can be launched into space for testing. It is a whole another space race this time around.
Applications and Implications
- If we are one day able to create a working EmDrive based spaceship, it will have huge consequences for our space missions. It will literally catapult humanity several decades if not centuries ahead in terms of our technological abilities.
- Spaceships equipped with the EmDrive will be much lighter than the current ones as there will be no need of heavy rocket fuel on board. This will make each flight much cheaper, making space travel like travelling to another city.
Image Credits
- Also, a spaceship with EmDrive will have much higher speeds. In fact, we could reach Mars in just 10 weeks, compared to 9 months we require today. NASA engineers also estimate that we could reach Alpha Centauri the closest star to our sun in just 92 years with higher capacity EmDrives. Compare that to the 20,000 to 100,000 years that ships with current technology would take!
- More impressively, NASA engineers also theorise that the EmDrive may be able to produce a warp bubble. It is quite far fetched but not impossible. Well, the word impossible loses all meaning anyways, when we are talking about the EmDrive. So, in theory we could have Warp Drive capabilities where we could travel faster than light without violating any laws of physics, just like in the movie Star Trek.
Image Credits
Apart from enhancing our space travel abilities, the EmDrive could be used in other areas as well:
- We could have safer and more efficient automobiles here on Earth.
- Shawyer suggests that this technology can be used to send solar-harvesting satellites in orbit. These could then beam the solar power back to the Earth. This will solve a lot of our energy woes.
- This technology can single handedly solve some of the biggest problems that we are facing today as a race. Let’s hope it gets to see the light of the day.
I am very sceptical.
Do you have references in which I could read further?
Also, one accepted paper does not mean the key for interstellar travels is there. Data must be reproduced first (this holds in general no matter what).
To make it short, I am not saying this is not possible. But we are far from being able to do it and one experiment enough is not enough. And I would like to read about the how to to understand better the theory behind.
Actually its not one experience. Multiple independent teams throughout the world have been able to replicate it and have shown that it works. But I agree with you. We are far from achieving this. A lot of testing and refinements will be necessary for any future applications.
Just to make it clearer: having one accepted paper does not mean anything. We have (many) examples of that.
Being peer-reviewed means that one or two experts reviewed the article and found it valuable. It does not mean that the results are necessarily correct or are the final words on the issue at stake.
But this is good hope, I agree.
PS: bookmarking the post, will read about this next week when I will have time and come back to it. You triggered my curiosity.
Yes, I know. That is why the further testing and also the testing in space. If they show that it works in space (managing to stay in orbit for longer periods of time), they will have to do work to understand the theory behind it.
The inventor of the EmDrive, Roger Shawyer, claims however that the drive doesn't break any laws of physics. We will have to wait and see for future investigations.
http://emdrive.com/principle.html
Take a look here.
That's fine, thanks. I read other stuff in the meantime.
When you are seeing a report about an amazing breakthrough in science without any reference to scientific sources you better remain a little bit skeptical (or you might getting disappointed later ;).
Same goes here. Please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_resonant_cavity_thruster
Looks like marginal thrust measured in those experiments were errors in experimental setup.
I'm personally putting my money on Mr. Newton and his Third Law ;)
"Law III: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts."
I don't understand how it works myself but I do hope this doesn't turn out to be like cold fusion or even like hot fusion (always 20 years away). Something like this is badly needed for us to start expanding out into space.
Ahhh the '20 years away'. :D But recently a lot of advancement has been done in the field of fusion energy and they are now saying that it is much more closer than 20 years ;)
Yes, I couldn't agree more that we need to start looking outside Earth as soon as possible given the dire condition it is in. Humanity needs a start over!
Very interesting story thanks
thanks for reading :)
@sauravrungta Do you think the secret flight tests being conducted by the US Gov and the US Air Force could potentially have something to do with this?
..or more likely (with Obama) is it just a gigantic spy plane to suck up all communications globally?
Well, I don't know if you read about conspiracy theories or not, but I have read quite a few. Some of them sound very very convincing. According to them, the US govt or the private military industrial complex to be more precise, have far more advanced capabilities than the EmDrive. They have the tech used in UFO thanks to the Roswell incident. Of course nothing can be proven but I believe some of that is true.
Hi, @sauravrungta,
Thanks for writing about this. I've been reading reports here and there for years. I appreciate the summary. Non-Newtonian propulsion is the future! ;)
Yes, humanity needs to broaden its minds and accept that there can be a teeny tiny chance that our current physics may be flawed.
At one time, didn't the greatest minds on the planet think that our planet was the center of the universe? We were proven wrong then too, right?....Anyways....I truly believe it won't be "rocket technology" that will make us a space faring civilisation. It has to be some other kind of high-tech abilities.
I couldn't agree more. I'll be following you for other news you may have.
Although I haven't posted much yet in this topic, I hope to be writing about alternative energy, propulsion, and other esoteric physic. I hope you'll check my blog and follow so that you'll enjoy some of that! ;)
thanks for the follow.... checked out your blog too! following you :)
Nice catch. Thanks for sharing.
Hopefully the oil cartel won't be able to squash this one.
Yeah, I hope they keep their evil hands out of this. They are the ones because of whom the world today is deprived of Nikola Tesla's greatest achievements that could have already changed the world till now!
Me to i wounder if they have tested it in a car
no they haven't yet tested it in a car. That is for future applications. Currently all work is focused on space travel.
Let's hope it gets to see the light of day Nice pun, :) Hopefully we can implement this energy source safely with all future vehicular and mobile forms of transportation. Thanks for sharing. Upvoted
Yes, let's hope that this becomes a reality.
Thanks for reading :)
Yes, you're welcome. Can't wait for that, much cleaner oxygen to breathe will be one of the benefits indeed
The emDrive is the most exciting development in a long time. I remember when it was unveiled, and mocked. I'm glad it's since been proven.
The mockery still continues. :(
I hope the space tests will finally shut everyone up! And then we can begin focusing on how to use it to help humanity!
Fantastic post, weird thing. I was absolutely convinced I was following you and it seemed I wasnt?! Sorted that quick!! Have you read The Hunt for Zero Point Energy its an excellent almost conspiracy almost thriller-esque book which touches on the breaking of the fundamental rule of physics you talk about, you cannot produce more energy than you consume.. Interesting stuff!!
I haven't read it but I have read a lot about the zero point energy. I think it was ZPE that Nikola Tesla was manipulating to create power from nothing. He called it the 'ether'. He was stopped dead in his tracks, unfortunately!
P.S. Thanks for following me..I'm following you too!