RL Reactionless Drive

[Cepinari]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_resonan...y_thruster

Looks like we might not need Transapient help on this one after all.

[Drashner1]

EM drive comes up here from time to time. The general consensus is that it doesn't seem very promising or likely, but that our general approach to it is 'wait and see'. If it somehow turns out that EM drive turns out to have any reality (and practical application) then we will look into modifying the OA setting, as applicable. In the meantime we are keeping on keeping on with the OA setting not including EM drive.

Todd

[Drashner1]

So, a quick Administration note: Duddy9 had posted a reply to this thread to the effect that the EM Drive seemed a bit dodgy.

All well and good and I thought everyone could see it. New posts that need moderation normally show up in pink highlighting in our view of the forum if they need Moderator approval in , something we require for the first post for all new members as part of our anti-spam bots process. But for some reason Duddy9's post didn't show up that way.

For some reason this AM the forum system decided to list the post that Duddy9 made about Appleseed as a first post, which I approved. But it also listed his post on this thread as needing approval as well. Thinking it was a duplicate or something, I deleted it which made it vanish here :/

Apologies for the mixup. The forum had a recent software upgrade that still appears to be turning up some bugs. Duddy9, if you want to repost to this thread to replace the deleted statement, that would be fine.

Sorry about that,

Todd

[iancampbell]

I've made this comment on a couple of other forums: Since, if the EM drive does work, we have no clue how it does work, there is no reason to think the current design is optimum. And various bits of machinery (steam engines being a very good example) have been improved before by tinkering and guesstimation, well before the underlying theory of their operation was developed. Which might mean that the EM drive could be improved in a similar way.

The main objection seems to be that the EM drive violates the currently accepted laws of physics. Well, that wouldn't be the first time; for example, the RTG that powers the Cassini mission violates the laws of physics as known in 1895. As does a watch with a radium dial.

But it ain't necessarily so. One get-out is that the drive is actually emitting something with momentum; something impossible, or close to it, to detect. A possibility I've seen mooted is that the EM drive is an axion rocket.

Interestingly enough, one detector for axions (one of the many dark matter candidates) I've seen suggested looks a lot like the EM drive acting in reverse; a microwave cavity emitting a signal caused by interacting with the universal axion background.

Incidentally, I agree. Even the current EM drive would be revolutionary. One with a couple of orders of magnitude efficiency improvement (as measured by power versus thrust) would be even more so.