Nostremitus
Member
They just finished new tests in a vacuum iot rule out anomalies...
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"Impossible" EmDrive still not officially disproven after further tests
- Thread starter Nafai1123
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...damnit.
Reactionless drive? Uhm...
Honestly, it still depends largely on the coincidence of the orbits.
Honestly, it still depends largely on the coincidence of the orbits.
Napoleonthechimp
Member
Didn't they already test it inside a vacuum a while back?
I really doubt the people testing this thing are unaware of a thing like that. The way I understood it was one of the first things they did was try to eliminate possibilities like that by testing it in a vacuum and whatnot.
Rodney McKay
Member
This must be what it's like for someone watching Star Trek for the first time.
Decouple the warp drive, reverse the polarity on the hull, and check the gel packs for contamination!
I think we're at least at the stage that even if it's not a viable engine in the end, there's something interesting here that might drive us forward in some way.
Dhruv_hanom
Member
Paul must be regretting disclosing the information right now.
Another Space Age dick measure contest would be sweet.
I remain sceptical, but good to see this thing is still chugging along
I really hope you're never put in charge of any major infrastructure projects, or anything at all really.
That sort of now-or-never short-termism is the cause of a hell of a lot of ills in our society today.
That's a pretty old post to be digging up at this point.
I really hope you're never put in charge of any major infrastructure projects, or anything at all really.
That sort of now-or-never short-termism is the cause of a hell of a lot of ills in our society today.
That's a pretty old post to be digging up at this point.
Light speed is nothing though
I mean in terms of traversing even our galaxy, it would take many years to complete trips to nearby solar systems, I think the closest is 4 light years away. You also have to take into account acceleration and deacceleration time which would make the trip longer.
And then obviously you take into account relativity and while trips will take 4+ years for the astronaut, it would be many more on Earth, I think?
That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works.
Rockets ain't cheap. People are going to want to be a bit more hopeful this actually works first.
Piggyback it on another mission. They do it all the time for micro science satellites.
The point is that if the impossible drive works, aliens discovered it millions and billions of years ago, and for security must be observing us even now, in our orbit ready to strike. Because an object that can be accelerated at the speed of light is a planet destroyer.
What if we're the first Aliens. Intelligent life might just take a really long time to develop and Earth is among the first of those types of planets.
Wyndstryker
Member
They did vacuum tests awhile ago. Previous pages were talking about the vacuum test.
eot
Banned
Relativity means it will take at least 4 years of Earth time. There's no lower bound on how short the trip is for the astronaut.
Sectorseven
Member
Say it does work. Would all research in traditional rockets suddenly drop?
Wyndstryker
Member
Nope. You still need those things to get out of atmosphere.
But once in space you switch over to the emdrive. Unless somehow the emdrive can scale upwards then it's borderline magical and can replace rockets but i doubt that will happen.
edit:
Someone should put this on the OP.
http://emdrive.wiki/Main_Page
It's pretty much a compilation of research and documentation.
Agent_Carnage
Member
How many times does something that test that it exist that people start believing.
How about build the damn thing and launch it into LEO and see if it works or not.
How about build the damn thing and launch it into LEO and see if it works or not.
Scientists and engineers don't work in the believe or do not believe realm. Either it is explainable with facts and data and repeatable results or it requires more testing. As far as launching it, it costs ~$10,000 usd per pound to launch something into orbit. So cost would be a big factor in "how about build it and launch it." Regardless to all that, it is exciting.
Wyndstryker
Member
It also doesn't help that there is no visible way of knowing it's actually working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P3pzbEnwuA
Could be wind, gravity, heat, pyschic energy, alien, who knows what generating the thrust. The tests are there to confirm what is the actual anomalous thrust with zero outside interference, then work it out from there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P3pzbEnwuA
Could be wind, gravity, heat, pyschic energy, alien, who knows what generating the thrust. The tests are there to confirm what is the actual anomalous thrust with zero outside interference, then work it out from there.
Wait, the engine is causing that thing to spin?!
Wyndstryker
Member
As far as basic tests go, thats a yes.
maniac-kun
Member
Cant they just launch a cheap satelite to test the engine in space?
Holy shit. I thought the force it produced was much smaller than that.
And apparently hobbyists can replicate the force:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbf7735o3hQ
If it doesn't work, they won't know why. Bad theory, problem with launch, failed component?
Sectorseven
Member
Would this be practical for air travel? Like could a jet ascend to 50,000 feet and switch to an em drive?
No. Space only, if that. I mean, maybe they could scale it up in the future, but the force is really small right now.
Huw_Dawson
Member
The crazy thing is, if this is proven to work, this is the first step. Huge vats of money would be thrown at the thing, because every 10% gain in propulsion from the engine would reduce space travel costs and difficulty massively.
If this works, and they can master the tech, it's entirely possible that the increase in thrust from the engine could be made high enough that the holy grail of fast, reliable space flight might happen in our lifetimes. Your kids might go to Mars in the same time it's take you to fly to Australia and back from the States or something.
If this works, and they can master the tech, it's entirely possible that the increase in thrust from the engine could be made high enough that the holy grail of fast, reliable space flight might happen in our lifetimes. Your kids might go to Mars in the same time it's take you to fly to Australia and back from the States or something.
fredrancour
Member
The current setup seems appealing because it would be a way to apply a relatively small acceleration continuously for ages and ages. I don't think it'd be useful at a distance like that.
HawksWinStanley
Member
Airplane II is the dream.
Just_myles
Member
Par Score said:
Well you would be surprised but I am actually in charge of major infrastructure projects, and I am doing quite well with this mentality. Would it have made a difference if I had said 5-10 years?
Short-termism as you coin it is a necessity in my opinion. I find that sometimes having the light under your ass tends to get things done. People tend to rally together when there is a hard deadline.
To be honest I have found in my travels that those with your mentality of long-termism(see what I did there?) tend to bring processes down with low results and with that comes low moral. That also can kill projects.
One would hope that space gets really tightly regulated for the next 1000 years if this pans out. Imagine some religious country sending up a payload into space that will eventually return at the speed of light, cracking the planet in half, so that all believers can reunite in heaven etc.
Veritigo_X
Member
That's a Ben Carson idea. If he actually had policies I'm sure that would be one of them.
This is only feasible if the superconducting EMDrive works and produces the gains that Shawyer claims are possible. That is highly speculative.
Wow. When you ask NASA how this thing works and the only answer they can give you is "We don't have a fucking clue", you know that something special is happening.
We're basically talking public transport at a Solar System level here.
We're basically talking public transport at a Solar System level here.
super-heated plasma
Member
"An Emdrive-based launch system would be undetectable and could arrive from any direction, leaving the target of an attack no way of knowing who to retaliate against."
thats scary.
thats scary.
Then what are we even doing here?
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