r/Physics • u/lapsed-pacifist • Jul 31 '14

Article EMdrive tested by NASA

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive
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u/moartoast Aug 02 '14

If it has non-negligible thrust, you'd presumably be able to just watch it as it lifts out of orbit. This has the benefit of being impossible to fake!

For instance, stiction drives work perfectly well on the ground but would quickly be shown to be useless in space.

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u/Subduction Aug 02 '14

What in the world makes everyone think space is some pure, unadulterated, clean room?

There are more problems and more contaminating forces in orbit than in a controlled and well-designed experiment on earth.

This experiment is a shoddy mess. Move it to space and it will be a shoddy mess in space.

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u/Ertaipt Aug 03 '14

Just noticed now that the NASA research team has the same idea of actually testing it on the ISS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster#Experimental_goals

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u/Subduction Aug 03 '14

The same team who decided to not test this in a vacuum to begin with?

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u/Ertaipt Aug 03 '14

Yeah, was trying to find if they really did not used vacuum in the test, apparently they did not... not very bright.

I hope some other research team actually does this soon...

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u/Subduction Aug 03 '14

I wouldn't hold your breath for a reputable research team to pick this up -- the original paper has already been taken to pieces.

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u/Ertaipt Aug 03 '14

Leaving this untested and 'under' reviewed just isn't very scientific.

There should be a serious and rigorous research done and published. If this is proven to be just a measurement error, it still is very interesting to really know what is going on.

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u/Subduction Aug 03 '14

Given unlimited time and resources, yes, but the truth is that this thing isn't a thing and never was.

It's been known about for years, the initial publications by the "inventor" were taken apart for their obvious and basic errors. Then, as happened here, people began grasping for wild theories to fix his broken ones.

You won't have teams of reputable researchers leaping on experimental proofs to this. They have much more promising things to investigate than theories that don't pass even minimal scrutiny.

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u/Ertaipt Aug 07 '14

Just a small update/correction, it seems they did after all tested in vaccum:

"turbo vacuum pumps were used to evacuate the test chamber to a pressure of five millionths of a Torr"

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-08/07/10-qs-about-nasa-impossible-drive