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I am surprised that nobody has yet to attempt the "simple" solution for testing something like this. The simple solution being to put it in space, turn it on,
by stale2002 9y ago
I am surprised that nobody has yet to attempt the "simple" solution for testing something like this.
The simple solution being to put it in space, turn it on, and see if it 'stays' in space.
The claimed amount of thrust is significant enough that it will either obviously succeed or fail if you actually put it in space.
- sushisource 9y agoThat's not "simple". It's very, very, very expensive to put things in space. Trying to figure it out on the ground first makes sense for a number of reasons.
- aeternus 9y agoThey should have asked Elon to toss it in the back of his roadster.
- vertexFarm 9y agoDamn it, that would have been a great idea. We could have gotten rid of this silly concept for good. Musk, it's time to launch another car!
- nasasucks 8y agoWell, to be fair, Elon _did_ offer a free payload to NASA but they were too old and grumpy to accept the generous offer so Tesla nailed a car to it at the last minute instead.
- cjensen 9y agoYour proposed test would not be conclusive because magnetic fields are a thing which can be pushed against.
- stale2002 9y agoWho cares? That would still be an extremely useful invention. I was thinking about this more from a practical perspective. And what matters is "does it work", and much less so "how does it work". I guess if it based on magnetic fields, then it wouldn't be useful for long range space travel but it would still be extremely useful for planet scale space travel!
- stouset 9y agoEven from a practical perspective, how it works is infinitely, infinitely more important, because learning this is the only way we can make dramatic improvements in our ability to use it.
- sigstoat 9y ago> That would still be an extremely useful invention. already invented, already in use, not as great as you'd hope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetorquer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetorquer > I guess if it based on magnetic fields, then it wouldn't be useful for long range space travel but it would still be extremely useful for planet scale space travel! turns out it isn't that effective. which can be determined with a sophomore-level understanding of physics and magnetic fields.
- Retra 9y agoWe can already propel things in a magnetic field. If that's all the EM drive is doing, then who cares?
- roywiggins 9y agoElectromagnetic tethers work in space... well, in Earth orbit anyway. So do solar sails. Neither carry propellant and neither are reactionless drives, so it's not a great test.
- andygates 8y agoOne does not simply... LEO has loads of stuff to interact with, and building a test article that won't drift due to, eg, materials outgassing is a specialist challenge. The Planetary Society have will be testing their lightsail later this year and it's been years, one launch failure, one engineering demonstrator, and now an actual test bird with its companion (so it has something to measure distances against). And that's for something which has physics on its side and is adored by Sagan-era enginerds. First demonstrate the thing in a lab. Otherwise nobody will take a launch request seriously, except maybe a non-expert bitcoin billionaire.