http://www.theverge.com/
A group of NASA scientists have been working on a potentially revolutionary space engine that doesn't require rocket fuel and could make a trip to Mars in just 10 weeks. Or, they could be looking at a scientific error in violation of one of classical physics' core rules. They've been trying to figure out which it is for months, and now newly released test results are ruling out the prevailing hypothesis for why what they're looking at is an error, according to NASASpaceflight. In a thorough breakdown of the new engine, called an EM Drive, NASASpaceflight calls these recent tests a major breakthrough in NASA's research.
The drive still worked in a vacuum
The new tests were conducted in a vacuum, unlike all prior tests, and the EM Drive was still found to work. In particular, this allows NASA to rule out the possibility that the drive's thrust is being created by heat transfer outside of the drive, rather than inside of it. The theory is that this drive can create force by bouncing electromagnetic waves around inside of a chamber, with some of their energy being transferred to a reflector to generate thrust. On the surface, this sounds a lot like something that violates the conservation of momentum, though the originator of the idea believes that this isn't actually the case.
There's obviously still quite a bit of work to be done here. NASASpaceflight says that the focus should remain on how this thrust is coming about — meaning it's still a matter of verifying that a working EM Drive is possible. NASA, through its Eagleworks lab, reportedly intends to do further tests on EM Drives in a vacuum after seeing these latest results. Should the drive pan out one day, the belief is that it would dramatically reduce the weight of what NASA has to launch into space, NASASpaceflight reports. It could also prevent a body like the International Space Station from having to continually receive boosts from visiting vehicles, and it could also be used for space travel, be it to the moon or something much farther out.
Is NASA one step closer to warp drive?
NASA is reportedly working on technology that could take us to the moon faster than a cross-country flight.
http://www.cnet.com/
NASA, according to NASASpaceFlight.com, is quietly claiming to have successfully tested a revolutionary new means of space travel that could one day allow for such insane speed, and to have done it in a hard vacuum like that of outer space for the first time.
The technology is based on the electromagnetic drive, or EM drive.
The science behind the EM drive is, well, complicated to say the least, but the basic idea is to convert electrical energy into thrust without propellant (the fuel in rockets), which should be impossible because it violates the law of conservation of momentum. That law states that momentum can only be changed by one of the forces described by Newton's laws of motion -- that's where propellant normally comes in with traditional rockets.
If you want to dive into the "hows" and "whys" of all this, they're discussed at length -- by amateur enthusiasts as well as Ph.Ds and one of the NASA engineers actually working on the EM drive -- on this NASASpaceFlight.com forum.
If such a technology really does work, and can be implemented in future spacecraft, the implications include faster, cheaper and more efficient travel around our solar system and beyond, and could even be a stepping stone to faster-than-light travel. Yes Trekkers, I do mean a warp drive.
Imagine a vehicle carrying half a dozen passengers and luggage to the moon in about four hours, or a multi-generational trip at almost one-tenth the speed of light to reach Alpha Centauri in less than a century. The technology that makes this a reality could be in testing right now in Texas at the Johnson Space Center.
NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but we reached out to Paul March, the engineer who has been working on the EM drive at JSC and sharing some of the results on the forum mentioned above. He told us:
"My work at Eagleworks (the lab at JSC where the EM drive is being tested) is just a continuation of my work tackling the fundamental problem that has been hindering manned spaceflight from the termination of the Apollo moon program. That being the availability of a robust and cost-effective power and propulsion technology that can break us loose from the shackles of the rocket equation."
The technology will still require more tests to verify that it's the real deal (none of this has gone through anything like a rigorous peer review, except for the pretty vigorous discussion on the above forum), and any spacecraft that ends up using an EM drive will basically need a substantial onboard nuclear power plant that will need to be developed for such a specific use in space.
The notion of flying through space atop a nuclear reactor shouldn't be any more scary than all the radiation flying through space outside our hypothetical future moon taxi though, so don't worry.
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