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NASA: New "impossible" engine works, could change space travel forever
Gizmodo ^ | August 1, 2014 | Jesus Diaz

Posted on 08/02/2014 12:16:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Until yesterday, every physicist was laughing at this engine and its inventor, Roger Shawyer. It's called the EmDrive and everyone said it was impossible because it goes against classical mechanics. But the fact is that the quantum vacuum plasma thruster works and scientists can't explain why.

Shawyer's engine is extremely light and simple. It provides a thrust by "bouncing microwaves around in a closed container." The microwaves are generated using electricity that can be provided by solar energy. No propellant is necessary, which means that this thrusters can work forever unless a hardware failure occurs. If real, this would be a major breakthrough in space propulsion technology.

Obviously, the entire thing sounded preposterous to everyone. In theory, this thing shouldn't work at all. So people laughed and laughed and ignored him. Everyone except a team of Chinese scientists. They built one in 2009 and it worked: They were able to produce 720 millinewton, which is reportedly enough to build a satellite thruster. And still, nobody else believed it.

Now, American scientist Guido Fetta and a team at NASA Eagleworks—the advanced propulsion skunkworks led by Dr Harold "Sonny" White at the Johnson Space Center—have published a new paper that demonstrates that a similar engine working on the same principles does indeed produce thrust. Their model, however, produces much less thrust—just 30 to 50 micronewtons. But it works, which is amazing on its own. They haven't explained why their engine works, but it does work:

Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.

The entire idea that we have found something that seems to go against the the principle of conservation of momentum just seems crazy to me. But the fact that it has worked for two independent parties can't be denied. That's the laboratory speaking. Then again, perhaps both labs made a mistake. I'm sure this will be tested by the Russians and the Europeans too, but at least I'm glad we are working on it.

But the fact that we may be witnessing something completely new, something that may push us forward into sci-fi territory once again, is very exciting.


TOPICS: Government; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: alcubierre; electrogravitics; electromagneticdrive; emdrive; eugenepodkletnov; eugenepodlekov; ftl; guidofetta; microwaves; miguelalcubierre; nasa; physics; rogershawyer; space; spaceexploration; spacetravel; stringtheory; superluminal
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Ah, now I see how these things work -- Zero Point Modules™

41 posted on 08/02/2014 1:24:59 PM PDT by mikrofon (a/k/a "Zed-Pee-Ems")
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To: ZOOKER

It breaks the law of Physics (conservation of motion).
If it works, our understanding of Physics is WRONG. Everything newer than Newton is suspect...

“Free Momentum” would indeed be a startling finding
The idea that there can be non-conserved momentum is would severely disturb Newton, and all Physicists forward.


42 posted on 08/02/2014 1:26:38 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have this uncle who made a Chevy 350 get 200 mpg, then someone killed him.


43 posted on 08/02/2014 1:26:57 PM PDT by DungeonMaster (No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.)
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To: stillonaroll

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams


44 posted on 08/02/2014 1:27:28 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
quantum vacuum virtual plasma.

Is that how the Fed produces Fedbucks?

45 posted on 08/02/2014 1:29:06 PM PDT by Stentor (Maybe the Goldman Sachs thing is just a coincidence. /S)
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To: wastedyears

I always find it funny too.. Violated laws they know but I am sure their billion of laws yet to be discovered.


46 posted on 08/02/2014 1:48:05 PM PDT by scbison
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The video I’m listening to in another tab had a soundtrack resembling those YT vids purporting to reveal all about some top secret (and often imaginary) project. He should rethink that.

http://cannae.com/about

Here’s Shawyer’s site:

http://www.emdrive.com/

and a paper of his:

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/av/shawyertheory.pdf


47 posted on 08/02/2014 1:48:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: wastedyears

Actual scientists don’t use words like “impossible”.


48 posted on 08/02/2014 1:56:11 PM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Build one into a little sattelite, loft it into LEO. See if it can fly itself around or not.

If it can, without expending reaction mass, that's what we want, whether we know how it works or not.

49 posted on 08/02/2014 1:58:21 PM PDT by Lee N. Field ("And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" Gal 3:29)
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To: cripplecreek

Even small curvature “short cuts” over millions of miles would save much energy.


50 posted on 08/02/2014 1:58:45 PM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Of course this isn't going to work.


Einstein said quantum physics doesn't work.


You can read about it here:


Einstein says quantum mechanics violates reality.


http://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.47.777

51 posted on 08/02/2014 1:59:20 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - a classical Christian approach to homeschool])
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To: DungeonMaster
I have this uncle who made a Chevy 350 get 200 mpg, then someone killed him.

I heard a similar story from my grandpa — said the guy was threatened that if he sold it, built (or gave plans/instruction) another, they'd kill him and his family.

52 posted on 08/02/2014 1:59:30 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: wastedyears

>>Love how scientists say it’s “impossible” because it violates “laws.”<<

We’ve got a whole crowd of “impossible” chanters here on FR. Why haven’t they appeared yet?


53 posted on 08/02/2014 1:59:42 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Impulse Engine......?????


54 posted on 08/02/2014 2:00:36 PM PDT by njslim (T)
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To: Lee N. Field

How fast is the “push” coming out of this thing? The speed of light? The point is to have an array that constantly fires when the object they are pushing is beyond a gravity well. Over time even the constant gentle push would push even a large mass to relativistic speeds...maybe not the speed of light since mass and velocity seem to have a relationship where mass becomes infinite at light speed unless space itself can be curved at the same time. Ionic propulsion works and they produce enough thrust over time to allow probes to catch up to comets at the velocities that they travel.


55 posted on 08/02/2014 2:10:05 PM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: wastedyears

If they really thought it was impossible they wouldn’t have tried it. Scientists are generally pretty straight up about there being things they’ve got a good handle on, things they don’t, and both sets are one discovery away from being rewritten.


56 posted on 08/02/2014 2:14:52 PM PDT by discostu (Villains always blink their eyes.)
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To: Amendment10

They all laughrd at the Wright Brthers too.


57 posted on 08/02/2014 2:38:59 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: wastedyears

Could it be applied to the Energy Industry? Or would the federal government move to consfiscate the engine for violating “laws” of physics and other obvious reasons?


58 posted on 08/02/2014 2:39:39 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Oatka

> I always thought that when people/scientists said that aliens couldn’t get here because of the vast distances, I thought of the arrogance of the human race. “We haven’t discovered it, so it can’t be done.”

This is what I think of athiests and the Left who say there is no G-d because they haven’t seem. I think they lack the capacity to consider that there is a Creator despite the vast evidence that exists which more than suggests it.


59 posted on 08/02/2014 2:46:25 PM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: wastedyears

Consensus has spoken! This thing cannot work! I don’t care if they build one and fly it to the stars, Consensus says it will not work, therefore it will not!

Bow to Consensus, lowly rube swine!


60 posted on 08/02/2014 3:01:54 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead...)
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