EmDrive – new “impossible”
spaceship engine
Recently some scientific magazines have published
information about a new spaceship engine called “EmDrive”. This is an electric
engine which could reach Mars in less than 70 days. It is almost unbelievable
having in mind that today every ship needs over 300 days to reach it. But, as
always with new technologies and inventions there is one fundamental problem. According
to the rules of physics such an engine should not work at all. There were a lot
of examples in the history when something only worked theoretically. Right now, we have a completely different
situation, there is a solution which can’t be proved by scientists.
What is exactly EmDrive and how does it work? This
machine was created by Roger Shawyer but just after it was announced many
scientists accused him of fraud. It was mainly due to the fact that such a machine
needs to break the first basic rule of physics - it would have to break the momentum
conservation principle. Many modern inventions and theories are based on this
principle and breaking it means one needs to review all existing theories.
What
does it mean - it means that the total linear momentum of an isolated system
remains constant regardless of changes within the system. For example, when
seating on a boat and blowing into sails, your boat will stay in the same place
without any movement. If you want to make your boat move, you have to jump out of the boat and then blow
into the sails.
EmDrive works bouncing microwaves off walls in the conical
structure and creates the momentum in a spaceship, without any fuel and without throwing anything
out of the ship. Like I said at the beginning, they made that “impossible
engine” work.
Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/new-paper-claims-that-the-em-drive-doesn-t-defy-newton-s-3rd-law-after-all
Chinese and NASA scientists (“Eagle
works”) wanted to check how it is possible that this engine works. They took this engine to their laboratory and conducted
a broad set of comprehensive tests and verifications to understand the reasons
why this engine works. Finally, at the end of 2015 they published a 30-page document,
which confirms that the engine really works and they proved it can produce 1 KW
with 1.6 milinewton of energy.
It is
really a little amount but even a small portion of energy could create the momentum
in the cosmos and move a spaceship forward. The scientists are convinced that if
we power up some parameters of this engine, we could get more power out of it. They
are going to test it in vacuum and verify
how we can use it.
Based
on these tests and findings they are going to modify the engine and try it on Earth.
In the case of success, it could help us
to create better sources of energy which could be used for instance to create
more efficient electric cars. Now we have to wait what scientists discover. Let’s
keep our fingers crossed and wish them good luck. This engine is a breakthrough
and could open a completely new ways of travelling. When they succeed we
can imagine that in a few years people will travel to Mars on holidays. It
sounds really amazing, I am looking forward to such a possibility.
Source:
Comments
It reminded me of the article I've read recently, about new plane which could theoretically travel from US to USA in 20 minutes, so 24 times quicker than the speed of sound.
Here's the link: http://www.elledecor.com/life-culture/travel/news/a9405/new-plane-antipode-fly-uk-new-york-20-minutes/?src=socialflowFB
physics and thats why everyone still think that kind of engine cant work. World still going up in the development of technology so i believe its possible