EM space drive

This is a 'drive' that was initially discovered in China, and was pretty much ignored in the west for being pseudo science. Someone built a version, and convinced NASA to test it.The news article is Nasa validates 'impossible' space drive | WIRED UKand the nasa report is Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum - NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)How much of this is just plain old wishful thinking, and how much actually has a bit of hope for some new ideas?

Clarke's First Law of prediction:

quote:

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When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

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In other words, lots of things are impossible right up to the time somebody does it anyway.

True. And yet some things, like neutrinos travelling faster than 'c' turn and cold fission out to not to be actual despite claims that those things were witnessed.

Whether real or not, maybe someone could even explain the significance of this.I understand the importance of getting power without having to tote around an exhaustible fuel supply, but I don't really understand just how much power the research in these articles is reporting.What's 720 mN of thrust? How about 30-50 micro-Newtons?Could this have applications on the ground?

According to the one article, the 720 mnt is 72 grams of thrust.that's a bit more than 2 oz. At the current level, that won't do squat on the ground, but for satellites that get their power via solar panels, it would quite a lot.

So it's enough to move 2 oz. worth of material? Is that what I should be taking from that?

It is enough to provide 2 oz of thrust or force given the test parameters. If applied to an object in space it could move very large objects. The article says that it could cut travel times to Mars down to weeks. This is because you would not have to carry any fuel but also probably indicates that it could be scaled up to provide much more thrust. The NASA results of 30 - 50 mn was 1/1000th of the Chinese results.

Not necessarily -- the thrust would be continuous so the craft would be accelerating - rather than a craft coasting after a burst of fuel, and carrying the fuel needed to decelerate at the end of the voyage.Enjoy

Yes but is 2 oz of continuous thrust sufficient to cut months off of the trip to Mars? Accelerating half the way and decelerating the other half. I suppose that you could just put 2 of them on there and then you would have 4 oz of thrust. Would the thrust not be proportional to the amount of energy put in?

True, but that also adds to the mass that needs to be launched and accelerated. Of course a ship could be assembled in space to take care of the launch problem, and it could carry a lander as was used on the moon mission so that the lander wouldn't need to be large.You could also set up a colony in orbit or on one of the moons first. Step by step.Enjoy

RAZD writes: And throw on some solar sails that also collect solar power.But if this turns out to be a viable thrust and can be scaled up by technological advances, this could be coolest.BTW, rather than trying to work on finding a Planet B, I think the future of Man In Space is in space, not necessarily on the surface of various terraformed planets. If we can communicate through our Earth's van Allen belts to the rovers on Mars, why can't a spacecraft create it's own van Allen belts to shield itself from the radiation problems?

Wouldn't a large magnetic field do the trick? The earth's magnetic field is not that strong, and solar power into a coil the length of the ship should be able to form a similar field in the surrounding space.Enjoy

Yeah, pretty much.In a general sense, 100N = (about) your average, normal hit from a football player.

If you press with two oz of force you can move a lump the mass of Everest. The acceleration wouldn't be neck snapping but over time your mountain spaceship would be as fast as you like.

Jon was asking about applications here on the ground...