NASA tests EM drive in a vacuum
This is really interesting stuff and has so much potential.
h/t Ted Ewen
Originally shared by Frank Elliott
NASA may just have found that breakthrough that allows spaceflights to Mars in weeks rather than months. A new electromagnetic drive has been tested in a vacuum like that of Space and works. In fact it produces thrust levels about a thousand times that of exiting ion propulsion engines.
Even more importantly, the thrust levels would allow spacecraft to reach just about 10% of the speed of light. That would make interstellar travel to nearby stars possible. The drive was developed almost 15 years ago by a small engineering firm and has been slowly gathering notice and believers. Now, NASA’s own engineers have tested a prototype. Almost impossibly, it works. You’ll want to read this report carefully and also read this link, embedded in the article’s text. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-futuristic-em-drive/
Major news services and newspapers have not picked up on this yet, especially on the test of the engine in a vacuum, where the drive was supposed to have experienced difficulties.
A very good read and one to look into.
If this ends up working on a larger scale, planetary manned missions would be only about a third of the launch weight that they might be if launched with today’s chemical rockets. They would require much less fuel because they could fly into lower orbits with the new electromagnetic engines boosting them higher up and taking them to escape velocity. Such an engine could be mounted on the International Space Station and keep it in a higher orbit indefinitely. This would end the recurring boosts it needs by supply missions and crew missions to boost its orbit. It would also lead to much less stress on the ISS structure. The station would last much longer.
#interplanetary #spaceexploration #spacecraft #interstellar #nasa #paradigmshift
http://io9.com/new-test-suggests-nasas-impossible-em-drive-will-work-1701188933
Wow Alan Stainer If this works, interstellar journeys will become possible; “to infinity, and beyond”
Yep. The stuff that is going on is utterly amazing. We have hover bikes and hoverboards in development. Electric cars like the Tesla that make old school thinking about electric vehicles look silly. Domestic home batteries that will revolutionise the way we think about our energy consumption. Self tying shoes! Oh and did I mention the far reaching implications of graphene?
We live in a science fiction world. :)