That Impossible EM Drive Might Be ..... Impossible After All!

Crackpots were just having a field day when NASA announced several years ago of an EM propulsion that somehow violates momentum conservation laws. Now comes a more careful experiment from a group that tried to reproduce this result, and the outcome is rather hysterical.

The team built their EM drive with the same dimensions as the one that NASA tested, and placed it in a vacuum chamber. Then, they piped microwaves into the cavity and measured its tiny movements using lasers. As in previous tests, they found it produced thrust, as measured by a spring. But when positioned so that the microwaves could not possibly produce thrust in the direction of the spring, the drive seemed to push just as hard.

And, when the team cut the power by half, it barely affected the thrust. So, it seems there’s something else at work. The researchers say the thrust may be produced by an interaction between Earth’s magnetic field and the cables that power the microwave amplifier.

So far, this has only been reported in a conference proceeding, which is linked in the New Scientist article (you will need ResearchGate access).

I'm sure there will be many more tests of this thing soon, but I can't help but chuckle at the apparent conclusion here.

Zz.