'Impossible' engine operation may change space travel

Do you know the image you see below? Well Until recently, everyone in the international community was laughing at this engine and its inventor, Roger Shawyer. At the time of the release of the device, called EmDrive, everyone said it was impossible because it went against the laws of physics.

But the fact is that the quantum vacuum plasma thruster works in the lab and scientists can't explain why.

For the sake of clarity, EmDrive uses a magnetron to produce microwaves directly into a specially formatted, high quality resonant closed cavity, the area of ​​which is larger at one end, where the radiation pressure would act differently due to a relativistic effect caused by the action of group velocity on different frames of reference.

The inventor states that the device generates a pulse even though no detectable energy leaves the propellant. If proven functionality as claimed by Shawyer, EmDrive could allow the design of the spacecraft engines to require no mass reaction. It would be a breakthrough in air travel and space flights. It's as if thrusters like this could work forever.

And doesn't it really work?

Obviously, the whole thing seemed absurd to everyone. In theory, this so-called revolutionary engine should not work. So many laughed and ignored Shawyer's invention. All except a group of Chinese scientists.

They built an equal propellant (following the same principles as the inventor) in 2009 and it worked: they were able to produce 720 millinewton, which is reportedly enough to build a satellite propellant. But still, no one believed.

Only now, US scientist Guido Fetta of the NASA Eagleworks team has published a new study showing that a similar engine works on the same principles and in fact produces momentum. Their model, however, produces much less thrust, only 30 to 50 micronewtons. But it works, which is amazing in itself. He just didn't explain how:

“Test results indicate that the resonant cavity propellant design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore potentially demonstrates an interaction with the virtual plasma. quantum vacuum ”.

The whole idea that we have found something that seems to go against the principle of conserving energy seems crazy. But the fact that it works in two independent parts cannot be denied. Probably devices like these will still be tested by other scientists, but the fact that we may be witnessing something completely new to the space science community is surprising.