Shawyer is currently working on the third-generation EmDrive design.
After a widely reported set of recent studies all but killed the controversial EmDrive, the propulsion device’s inventor has fired back by pointing out what he calls critical errors in the research. Who’s who in this cutting-edge scientific mudslinging, and what does the future really hold for the “impossible” EmDrive?
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First, let’s briefly recap how we got here. For such a far-out concept, the idea of the EmDrive is relatively straightforward. The device, which is copyrighted by Satellite Propulsion Research (SPR) Ltd, theoretically works by trapping microwaves in a shaped chamber where their bouncing produces thrust. The chamber is closed, meaning from the outside, it will appear to simply move without any fuel input or any thrust output.
The idea was always far out, but that’s part of how science moves forward.
EmDrive works (or not) by pumping microwaves into an asymmetrical closed chamber.
In major international tests, the physics-defying EmDrive has failed to produce the amount of thrust proponents were expecting. In fact, in one test at Germany’s Dresden University, it didn’t produce any thrust at all. Is this the end of the line for EmDrive?
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The EmDrive, copyrighted by its parent company SPR Ltd, theoretically works by trapping microwaves in a shaped chamber where their bouncing produces thrust. The chamber is closed, meaning from the outside, it will appear to simply move without any fuel input or any thrust output.