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Even if it did work I don't think the EmDrive would be revolutionary. A vehicle equipped with it still has to generate energy. It terms of how useful it is you

Even if it did work I don't think the EmDrive would be revolutionary. A vehicle equipped with it still has to generate energy. It terms of how useful it is you've just moved the payload requirement from the fuel tank to the generator module. Going by these experiments the EmDrive doesn't have a hope of ever matching the mass efficiency of an ion drive.

akiselev 6y ago
That's the irony of it all. Power plants capable of powering an EmDrive that's practically useful for manned flight can be summed up with one word: nuclear. With the exception of the (lovely but insane) Project Orion, all of the nuclear propulsion designs like NERVA and the nuclear lightbulb generate a ridiculous amount of heat that we have trouble handling here on Earth, let alone in vacuum without convection - most nuclear plants are built with access to large natural or artificial bodies of water as a heat sink. The future of manned space flight is almost certainly nuclear and it looks like tiny cabins attached to giant passive heatsinks or spacecraft that constantly have to accelerate just to dump all the waste heat and avoid cooking its inhabitants.
- bjo590 6y ago
  > Project Orion Here is some declassified test footage of Project Orion. I don't believe any of the test crafts used nuclear explosions, but you'll get the idea from this footage (on why it's a terrible idea that could only exist in the 40s or 50s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    Orion is an impractical idea but the risks do seem manageable. In "peacetime" it could never launch from the ground, but assembled in space it could be fruitful. It's probably the only possible way to get a city of people off the planet.
  - damoe 6y ago
    I love the top comment on the video, "External combustion engine."
waterheater 6y ago
>A vehicle equipped with it still has to generate energy. Yes, with solar panels. No mass is expelled, which is why there's so many claims about it violating the law of Conservation of Moment. > Going by these experiments the EmDrive doesn't have a hope of ever matching the mass efficiency of an ion drive. If the craft runs out of ions to throw really fast behind it, how could it get more? Well, it can't. That's why the EmDrive is a paradigm shift; solar panels allow for the generation of electricity, which then powers a magnetron to create thrust. And efficiency? Well, ion drives presumably have decades of head-start. Give it time.

akiselev 6y ago

That's the irony of it all. Power plants capable of powering an EmDrive that's practically useful for manned flight can be summed up with one word: nuclear. With the exception of the (lovely but insane) Project Orion, all of the nuclear propulsion designs like NERVA and the nuclear lightbulb generate a ridiculous amount of heat that we have trouble handling here on Earth, let alone in vacuum without convection - most nuclear plants are built with access to large natural or artificial bodies of water as a heat sink. The future of manned space flight is almost certainly nuclear and it looks like tiny cabins attached to giant passive heatsinks or spacecraft that constantly have to accelerate just to dump all the waste heat and avoid cooking its inhabitants.

bjo590 6y ago
> Project Orion Here is some declassified test footage of Project Orion. I don't believe any of the test crafts used nuclear explosions, but you'll get the idea from this footage (on why it's a terrible idea that could only exist in the 40s or 50s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM
- mhh__ 6y ago
  Orion is an impractical idea but the risks do seem manageable. In "peacetime" it could never launch from the ground, but assembled in space it could be fruitful. It's probably the only possible way to get a city of people off the planet.
- damoe 6y ago
  I love the top comment on the video, "External combustion engine."

waterheater 6y ago

>A vehicle equipped with it still has to generate energy. Yes, with solar panels. No mass is expelled, which is why there's so many claims about it violating the law of Conservation of Moment. > Going by these experiments the EmDrive doesn't have a hope of ever matching the mass efficiency of an ion drive. If the craft runs out of ions to throw really fast behind it, how could it get more? Well, it can't. That's why the EmDrive is a paradigm shift; solar panels allow for the generation of electricity, which then powers a magnetron to create thrust. And efficiency? Well, ion drives presumably have decades of head-start. Give it time.