http://io9.com/new-test-suggests-nasas-impossible-em-drive-will-work-1701188933

[img]http://www.ar15.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_shock.gif[/img

link

In before Vulcans landing.

Suggests Does Not mean works.

Impossible drive? Shouldn't that be Improbability Drive?

oooooh!

I may get to be a space pirate before i die YAY!  

I wish I wasn't an old fuck...

 
... careful what you wish for

Won't believe till a test craft travels an astronomical distance. Its energy inefficient, and so far they haven't developed much more delta vee than a gnat fart...if even that much.

We won't know for sure that it works until they stick one on a microsat at >500 miles altitude and see what happens.

1: Increased power = increased thrust.
2: Thrust efficiency may be improvable. This is an early design.
3: Being able to generate thrust without expending propellant mass is a REALLY BIG FUCKING DEAL and would be the biggest human discovery since steam power.
4: If these devices do alter space-time as some tests suggest, it will be the biggest discovery in human history.

If you think a small amount of constant thrust doesn't matter, you need to expand your knowledge of astronavigation.

They're discovering the hell out of it this week.

Exactly!

 

eagleworks must be running low on funding again

Hyperbole aside, if this pans out. Even with the current efficiency (Which is abyssmal) this discovery would ensure the survival of the human race.

Generating more energy is a trivial concern compared to hauling enough reaction mass to slowboat practical distances around the cosmos.

I would not start jerking off quite yet.....we have heard this shit before and there are other implications relating to what was thought to be fact that will get kicked to the curb if this pans out. Sounds wonderful. Askes more questions than it answers...

I'm interested enough to start reading the literature. If there is going to be a field of experimental warp field physics, I am going to find a way to be involved.

That explains why I keep getting "magma displacement" on my seismic system.

Exactly.

I still think this could be some strange atmospheric or magnetospheric interference generating the thrust... But that looks less likely as the tests progress.

If these things really do work, it is a really, really big deal.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1743817_NASA_s_work_on_the_EmDrive_may_have_created_warp_field.html

I wonder what the military applications could be. Get DARPA on this shit with eagle works. I want a battlestar Galactica ASAP.

These guys need to hurry, I'd like to take a tour of the solar system before I die.

I am well aware of the benefit of low gee constant acceleration, complete with mid-journey flipover. I've read Heinlein as a kid, used the math in RPGs as a teen, and fly ion powered probes in KSP now.

I'm more skeptical Tex, because now they are making claims that the fucking thing formed a warp bubble or something. When the Hadron Collider made such a claim, it was later revealed to be sloppy time measurement that caused the erroneous report of FTL sub-atomic particles.  I hate sloppy work in precision measuring, and will await something other than a table-top demonstration to award my admiration to this new idea.

Another factor for deep space, where the benefit of this on long duration flights would be most likely to be used, a huge amount of energy would be needed to push something. Let's be a little aggressive and call one tenth of a gee as a target number. So far they are below this mark by several orders of magnitude, with available power from the wall.  In deep space, solar isn;t going to work, and for a crew, you'd need to have enough shielding in one form or another to protect a crew from a radioactive power source, adding more mass.

If proven out, there may be some niche missions where this could be used, but we are still a very long way from finding the road to the stars.