The 'Impossible' EM Drive is About to be Tested in Space and Universe
An actual EM Drive is about to be launch into space for the 1st time, so scientists can lastly figure out - once and for all - if it really is possible for a rocket engine to make thrust without any kind of exhaust or propellant.
Built by American discoverer and chemical engineer, Guido Fetta, the EM Drive is as controversial as it gets, because while certain experiment have suggested that such an engine could work, it also goes next to one of the most fundamental laws of physics we have. As Newton's Third Law states, "To each action there's an equal and conflicting reaction," and many physicists say the EM Drive categorically violates that law. This is because in order for a thruster to increase momentum in a certain way, it has to expel some kind of propellent or exhaust in the differing direction. But the EM Drive just goes in one direction with no propellant, and thus violates the law of conservation of momentum, which Newton resulting from his Third Law.
And not only that, but it could produce enough thrust to blast humans to Mars in presently 70 days.
As Fiona MacDonald put it back in June, space enthusiasts love to get excited about the EM Drive, because if it works, it has the potential to remove main barriers in our require to explore the Solar System and beyond. But just as many are sick of hearing about it, because, on paper at slightest, it doesn't work within the laws of physics.
Imaginary by British scientist Roger Shawyer back in 1999, the EM Drive - short for electromagnetic propulsion drive - supposedly works like this. It uses electromagnetic waves as 'fuel', creating thrust by bouncing microwave photons back and forth within a cone-shaped closed metal cavity. This causes the 'pointy end' of the EM Drive to accelerate in the conflicting direction that the drive is going.
"To put it simply, electricity converts into microwaves within the cavity that push next to the inside of the device, causing the thruster to accelerate in the opposite way," Mary-Ann Russon explains over at The International Business Times.
Since its invention, the EM drive has shown no signs of quit, in test after test. Previous year, trials by NASA scientists at the Eagleworks lab bare "anomalous thrust signals", and an independent researcher in Germany approved that the thrust system, somehow, does indeed produce thrust.
Fast-forward to now, and there are rumours that the NASA Eagleworks document we reported on in June has lastly passed the peer-review process, and is expected to be published by the American organization of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Journal of Propulsion and Power.
If the rumours by José Rodal from MIT are true - and let’s are clear, they’re still just rumours at this point - it could be huge.
As Brendan Hesse explain for Digital Trends:
"This is an important step for the EM Drive as it adds legitimacy to the skill and the tests done thus far, opening the door for other groups to duplicate the tests. This will also allow other groups to devote extra resources to uncovering why and how it works, and how to iterate on the drive to make it a feasible form of propulsion.
So, while a single peer-reviewed paper isn’t going to unexpectedly equip the human race with interplanetary travel, it’s the1st step toward eventually realising that possible future."
And on top of every of that, we’re about to see an actual EM Drive be blasted into space.
Guido Fetta is CEO of Cannae Inc, and the inventor of the Cannae Drive - a rocket engine that's based on Roger Shawyer's original EM Drive design. previous month, he announced that he would launch this thruster on a 6U CubeSat - a type of miniaturised satellite.
David Hambling information for Popular Mechanics that roughly one-quarter of this shoebox-sized satellite will be taken up by the Cannae Drive, and they'll stay in orbit for at slightest six months: "The longer it stays in orbit, the extra the satellite will show that it must be producing thrust without propellant."
Built by American discoverer and chemical engineer, Guido Fetta, the EM Drive is as controversial as it gets, because while certain experiment have suggested that such an engine could work, it also goes next to one of the most fundamental laws of physics we have. As Newton's Third Law states, "To each action there's an equal and conflicting reaction," and many physicists say the EM Drive categorically violates that law. This is because in order for a thruster to increase momentum in a certain way, it has to expel some kind of propellent or exhaust in the differing direction. But the EM Drive just goes in one direction with no propellant, and thus violates the law of conservation of momentum, which Newton resulting from his Third Law.
And not only that, but it could produce enough thrust to blast humans to Mars in presently 70 days.
As Fiona MacDonald put it back in June, space enthusiasts love to get excited about the EM Drive, because if it works, it has the potential to remove main barriers in our require to explore the Solar System and beyond. But just as many are sick of hearing about it, because, on paper at slightest, it doesn't work within the laws of physics.
Imaginary by British scientist Roger Shawyer back in 1999, the EM Drive - short for electromagnetic propulsion drive - supposedly works like this. It uses electromagnetic waves as 'fuel', creating thrust by bouncing microwave photons back and forth within a cone-shaped closed metal cavity. This causes the 'pointy end' of the EM Drive to accelerate in the conflicting direction that the drive is going.
"To put it simply, electricity converts into microwaves within the cavity that push next to the inside of the device, causing the thruster to accelerate in the opposite way," Mary-Ann Russon explains over at The International Business Times.
Since its invention, the EM drive has shown no signs of quit, in test after test. Previous year, trials by NASA scientists at the Eagleworks lab bare "anomalous thrust signals", and an independent researcher in Germany approved that the thrust system, somehow, does indeed produce thrust.
Fast-forward to now, and there are rumours that the NASA Eagleworks document we reported on in June has lastly passed the peer-review process, and is expected to be published by the American organization of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Journal of Propulsion and Power.
If the rumours by José Rodal from MIT are true - and let’s are clear, they’re still just rumours at this point - it could be huge.
As Brendan Hesse explain for Digital Trends:
"This is an important step for the EM Drive as it adds legitimacy to the skill and the tests done thus far, opening the door for other groups to duplicate the tests. This will also allow other groups to devote extra resources to uncovering why and how it works, and how to iterate on the drive to make it a feasible form of propulsion.
So, while a single peer-reviewed paper isn’t going to unexpectedly equip the human race with interplanetary travel, it’s the1st step toward eventually realising that possible future."
And on top of every of that, we’re about to see an actual EM Drive be blasted into space.
Guido Fetta is CEO of Cannae Inc, and the inventor of the Cannae Drive - a rocket engine that's based on Roger Shawyer's original EM Drive design. previous month, he announced that he would launch this thruster on a 6U CubeSat - a type of miniaturised satellite.
David Hambling information for Popular Mechanics that roughly one-quarter of this shoebox-sized satellite will be taken up by the Cannae Drive, and they'll stay in orbit for at slightest six months: "The longer it stays in orbit, the extra the satellite will show that it must be producing thrust without propellant."
No launch date has been set presently yet, but it could happen in as soon as 6-months' time.
As Hambling points out, Fetta better hurry, since a team of engineers in China, and Shawyer himself, are both also working on their own launchable EM Drives, so someone's leaving to get there first, and we fatally cannot wait to see what will happen
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