More Testing for the EmDrive

Over the last few years, there has been some interest in something called the EmDrive – what could, if it is for real, be a true reactionless drive that could at minimum be used as a thruster on satellites and space probes. It's been tested in several countries, and some experiments seem to generate a small (micro-Newton level) thrust, but given the difficulties of measurement, the results have been inconclusive.

Now a team of German engineers has conducted a new series of tests and should be announcing their results soon.

The resolution lies in designing a tool that can measure these minuscule amounts of thrust. So a team of physicists at Germany’s Technische Universität Dresden set out to create a device that would fill this need. Led by physicist Martin Tajmar, the SpaceDrive project aims to create an instrument so sensitive and immune to interference that it would put an end to the debate once and for all. In October, Tajmar and his team presented their second set of experimental EmDrive measurements at the International Astronautical Congress, and their results will be published in Acta Astronautica this August. Based on the results of these experiments, Tajmar says a resolution to the EmDrive saga may only be a few months away.

I will be waiting with bated breath to see the results.