Apparently, the EM drive is now a thing, for real. How awesome is that?
The article concerns a VERY interesting discussion of inertia, and how it might be a different thing altogether from what we have assumed to date. Long story short, the EmDrive may work because inertia comes in quanta, like electrons. If you have half a quanta of inertia, the other half gets made up in thrust.In 2012, a Chinese team said it had measured a thrust produced by its own version of the EmDrive. In 2014, an American scientist built an EmDrive and persuaded NASA to test it with positive results.
And last year, NASA conducted its own tests in a vacuum to rule out movement of air as the origin of the force. NASA, too, confirmed that the EmDrive produces a thrust. In total, six independent experiments have backed Shawyer's original claims.
Huh. I thought the EM drive would turn out to be another "Dean Drive"
ReplyDeletethat never would work IRL, but people have actually built some. Let's
hope they work as well when actually strapped to real payloads.
In other news, the Hugo Finalists have been announced.
Go Go Space Raptor Butt Invasion!
Thanks dewd!
ReplyDelete