Until yesterday, every physicist was laughing at this engine and its inventor, Roger Shawyer. It's called the EmDrive and everyone said it was impossible because it goes against classical mechanics. But the fact is that the quantum vacuum plasma thruster works and scientists can't explain why.
Shawyer's engine is extremely light and simple. It provides a thrust by "bouncing microwaves around in a closed container." The microwaves are generated using electricity that can be provided by solar energy. No propellant is necessary, which means that this thrusters can work forever unless a hardware failure occurs. If real, this would be a major breakthrough in space propulsion technology. |
I bet to all you younger folks out here, this will be funny 40-50 years from now.....
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We can go anytime we want. We just can't come back.
Honestly, I couldn't care less about Mars and its weak magnetic field. The thing that's going to reignite our space program is the discovery and confirmation of an ideal, habitable planet within 10 light years (I'm looking at you Alpha Centauri) and/or intelligent life on another world or in space. Maybe the development of some kind of cost effective resource mining in our solar system could do it, but it's hard to imagine any real money or support going back into the space program with incremental visits to Mars.
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Go out to the belt and lasso some of those puppies and tow then back to sucked dry of their sweet sweet elements
Or how about getting your bottled water from purified comet ice? pretty awesome right?
A Boeing 747 engine produces about 66,500 pounds of thrust. So if we can affix 133,000 (66,500 x 2) of these quantum razz-ma-tazz babies to the wing of an airplane, we could save a bunch of money on jet fuel.
I can't wait for the IPO to come out. ;-)
Baby steps, baby steps.
Big Frickin' Deal.
The ebola is coming for us all.
WE ARE DOOMED
Big Frickin' Deal.
^^^^^Andrea from walking dead's Dad Glen Corbet^^^^^^^^