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Nasa's engineers have presented evidence that cautiously confirms the successful testing of an “impossible” microwave thruster engine that appears to defy the laws of physics.
In a paper published by the agency’s experimental Eagleworks Laboratories, Nasa engineers confirmed that they had produced tiny amounts of thrust from an engine without propellant. This appears to goes against the conservation of momentum; the law of physics that states that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction.
The engine, designed by US scientist Guido Fetta and known as the 'Cannae Drive', uses electricity to generate microwaves, bouncing them inside a specially designed container that, in theory, creates a difference in radiation pressure and generates directional thrust.
The report, Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum, appears to prove the theory, with the engine's initial tests providing modest but promising results.
Nasa said: “Approximately 30-50 micro-Newtons of thrust were recorded from an electric propulsion test article consisting primarily of a radio frequency resonant cavity excited at approximately 935 megahertz.”
These results are less than a thousandth of the thrust produced in tests by Chinese engineers, who last year tested a similar engine known as the EmDrive, which produced 720 micro-Newtons of thrust. However, the test was largely ignored by the West.
The EmDrive was originally designed by British scientist Roger Shawyer, whose work in this field has garnered as much support as it has criticism, due to the fact the technology appears to flout the laws of physics.
As such, Nasa currently remains cautious about the positive results the Cannae Drive has delivered, and has offered only a limited explanation of the possible physics at play: “Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.”
At present the drive requires manual control of the microwave emissions to get the best results – but the Cannae team said an automatic controller was under development and could be used in a scaled-up system.
Many sceptics have denounced the claims, including California Institute of Technology physicist Sean Carrol, who tweeted, “'Propulsive momentum tranfer via the quantum vacuum virtual plasma' is nonsensical sub-Star-Trek level technobabble.”
While critics will want further testing of the 'Cannae Drive' engine, the news that Nasa is taking this experimental technology seriously has created a stir in the scientific community.
Nasa has confirmed that future test plans will include “independent verification and validation at other test facilities”.