EM Drive WORKS

[Husker]

http://www.eteknix.com/tests-show-nasas ... y-possible

The new drive was discovered almost by accident, as the test was meant to use microwave technology to provide propulsion without the use of a propellant, but early tests left scientists baffled, as light was able to travel at faster than light speeds throughout the field that the drive generated.

...

New tests have been performed in a vacuum, but amazingly the drive was still found to work, at least as a form of propulsion, adding further merit to the idea that the EM Drive is possible.

If light can travel faster inside the field than the speed of light outside the field then that would still mean a form of propulsion is needed to move the craft inside the field. The EM drive must just mean the speed of light is increased. Unless it really does push the ship.

Also, is this not exactly how warp drive works in Star Trek??? The core is the power source, the nacelles emit the field and the ship moves within that field??? They always need a stable warp field to reach warp speeds.

Honest question now, how the hell did Roddenberry know of all this tech back then??? Tricorders, light emitting weaponry, tablets, warp drive etc. It's all become a reality yet he thought of it all back then.

[seraph]

....omg you don't know? He was a time traveler! But because he came back not everything is going according how it did in his prime timeline. Still eventually we will make contact with vulcans and create the federation...

[Hevach]

Works sort of... It still produces thrust when the chamber isn't even hooked up and forward thrust when it's hooked up backwards (both of which show it's doing something, but that it's definitely not doing what the creator claims it does).

The interferometer results are interesting, but it should be noted that the method they used is highly susceptible to calibration issues, and in fact they made the same NASA team made the same mistake while testing the ion drive design used by Dawn and made an almost identical press release about it. The Chinese team that tested it has already said that they did not observe this effect, and if it is happening, it's in the wrong direction to account for the thrust - the measured "warp" effect, if it's real, would actually reduce thrust by increasing the length of the chamber (If, that is, it's doing what the creator claims, which already seems to be in doubt).

[artilleryman08]

The theory they have been testing for faster-than-light travel has been around for some time and roddenbury sort of used the basic idea of it for his series. The basic premise is that you create a bubble around a ship and the ship never really moves, it compresses the space in front of it while expanding the space behind it. Although mathematically the theory works, it has two major problems. 1) Creating an engine that can make this happen and 2) generating enough energy for that engine to work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

This is an article that can explain all the physics behind the theory but it is fairly dull reading unless you are REALLY into this sort of thing. Its an exciting idea that they are working. The actual details are mind numbing.

[Hevach]

If (and that's still a big if, since whatever it actually is doing isn't consistent with what it's creator claims it can do) it's working, the EM drive isn't an Alcubierre drive. It won't allow FTL travel, it will allow extremely low thrust with extremely high electrical needs, but with no need for reaction mass. It would be incredibly efficient on long interplanetary transfer burns, and not having fuel weight would allow it to use inefficient transfer windows that need much longer burns (meaning we could launch to Venus or Mercury any time we want and would have a wide window every year for every outer planet, rather than the long gaps we have now), but it wouldn't get you there faster if you want to achieve orbit once there.

[Delwyn]

Indeed...a reactionless drive has massive advantages in allowing for a much larger payload of any spacecraft we send out there, since fuel wouldn't be taking up potential payload mass. However, unless we can figure out some kind of inertial damper, then any manned travel would still be limited by an acceleration rate that would be safe over long periods for humans...probably something in the neighborhood of 1.5 g...though most flights would likely keep accelerations to 1g for comfort's sake. What you would end up doing then on any interplanetary hop would be to accelerate for half the trip and decelerate for the second half, bringing you to your destination at a proper speed to achieve orbit or an entry vector for landing.

The real question that we'd be looking at, assuming this "EM drive" actually works is 'how is it working', 'why does it work?'. Given how little we still know about Dark matter and Dark energy, you'd almost have to wonder if this generated field is interacting in some way with a pervasive Dark energy field that we have no clue how to detect or even really fully describe yet. One short term possibility is that if something like this is happening, we could eventually use the field generated by this drive to help us answer some of these questions.

In any event, the sheer prospects for expanding our field of knowledge is very exciting.

[phasers]

According to the page about Constitution-class in Memory Alpha. Mr. Jefferson, a member of the production team have done not publicly known jobs for the US government... It was back at the 60s though, but of course who know what they were doing back then...
And the source doesnt seem very legit...

[phasers]

Works sort of... It still produces thrust when the chamber isn't even hooked up and forward thrust when it's hooked up backwards (both of which show it's doing something, but that it's definitely not doing what the creator claims it does).

The interferometer results are interesting, but it should be noted that the method they used is highly susceptible to calibration issues, and in fact they made the same NASA team made the same mistake while testing the ion drive design used by Dawn and made an almost identical press release about it. The Chinese team that tested it has already said that they did not observe this effect, and if it is happening, it's in the wrong direction to account for the thrust - the measured "warp" effect, if it's real, would actually reduce thrust by increasing the length of the chamber (If, that is, it's doing what the creator claims, which already seems to be in doubt).

Chinese team released a lot of info about their attempt either if I recall... Not to blame them or anything since EM-drive (if it works) would have great strategic value.