A real EM
Drive is about to be launched into space for the first time in history, so
researchers can finally discover, once and for all, if it actually is possible
for a rocket engine to create thrust without any kind of exhaust or propellant.
Constructed by American inventor and chemical engineer, Guido Fetta, the EM Drive
is as doubtful as it gets, because while certain scientists have proposed that
such an engine could work, it also goes contrary to one of the most famous and
important laws of physics we have.
Photograph of the Cannae Drive. Credit: Cannae
Inc.
"To
each action there is an equal and opposite reaction", As Newton's Third
Law states, and many physicists say the EM Drive firmly break up that law. This
is because, in order for a thruster to get momentum in any direction, it has to
eject some kind of propellant or exhaust in the reverse direction. But the EM
Drive humbly goes in one direction with no propellant and hence violates the
law of conservation of momentum, which Issac Newton derived from his Third Law.
And not just that, but it could create enough thrust to take humans to Mars in
almost 2 months and 10 days.
As Fiona
MacDonald put it back in June, space supporters love to get motivated about the
EM Drive, because if it works, it has the possibility to remove major fences in
our need to discover the Solar System and beyond. But just as many are
enthusiastically sick of hearing about it, because, on paper at least, it does
not follow the fundamental laws of physics. Designed by British scientist Roger
Shawyer back in 1999, the EM Drive which stands for Electromagnetic Propulsion
Drive supposedly works like this. It consumes electromagnetic waves as 'fuel',
generating thrust by rebounding microwave photons back and forward inside a
cone-shaped sealed metal cavity. This causes the 'pointy end' of the EM Drive
to speed up in the opposite direction that the EM drive is going.
Mary Ann
Russon describes over at The International BusinessTimes, "To put it
simply, electricity changes into microwaves within the cavity that push
contrary to the inside of the device, causing the thruster to accelerate in the
reverse direction".
An EM Drive
prototype. Image: Science 2.0
Since its
invention, the EM drive has revealed no signs of giving up, in test after test.
Last year, trials by NASA researchers at the Eagleworks laboratory discovered "anomalous
thrust signals", and an independent researcher in Germany approved that
the propulsion system, somehow, does certainly produce thrust.
Fast-forward
to now, and there be stories that the NASA Eagleworks paper we informed in June
has finally passed the peer-review procedure, and is estimated to be issued by
the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIA) and Astronautics’ Journal of
Propulsion and Power (AAJPP). If the rumors by José Rodal from MIT are true,
and let’s be clear, they are still just rumors at this point, it could be
enormous. As Brendan Hesse describes for Digital Trends: “This is a significant
step for the EM Drive as it enhances legitimacy to the technology and the
experiments done this far, making a door for other groups to repeat the
experiments. This will also allow other groups to dedicate more resources to
uncovering why and how it works, and how to repeat on the drive to make it a
workable form of thrust.
So, while a
peer-reviewed paper is not going to suddenly allow the human race with
planetary travel, it is the first footstep toward eventually understanding that
possible future." And on top of all of that, we are about to witness a
real EM Drive to be launched into space. Guido Fetta is CEO of Cannae Inc, and
the discoverer of the Cannae Drive, a rocket engine that is based on Roger
Shawyer's unique EM Drive design. Last month, he declared that he would launch
this thruster on a 6U CubeSat, a kind of miniaturized satellite.
David
Hambling reports for Popular Mechanism that approximately one-quarter of this
shoebox-sized satellite will be carried up by the Cannae Drive, and they will
stay in orbit for almost six months: "The longer it stays in orbit, the
more the satellite will show that it must be creating thrust without
propellant."
No launch
date has been fixed just yet, but it could take place in as soon as six months'
time. As Hambling points out, Fetta better haste, because a group of engineers
in China, and Shawyer himself, together are also working on their particular
launch-able EM Drives, so somebody is going to get there first, and we truly
can’t wait to see what will happen
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