Remember how, just last month, Germany’s high court ordered its parliament, or Bundestag, to release ostensibly innocuous UFO papers authorities had been collecting and withholding since a 1978 United Nations resolution urged its members to treat this subject seriously? And how the Bundestag hemmed and hawed and said, well, OK, well, maybe next year, now buzz off? De Void has just been inspired to write the next chapter, on account of what happened yesterday in Orlando.
That's when the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) opened an energy forum whose centerpiece was a propulsion system with the theoretical potential to radically overhaul space exploration. It’s called the EM Drive, in which electromagnetics ideally replace conventional fuel propellants by converting electrical energy directly to thrust via quantum particles. Best-case scenario, by exploiting quantum material, you could reach Pluto in 18 months instead of nine years. Not quite warp drive, but a hair-raising velocity nevertheless.
A foundational model was designed several years back by Satellite Propulsion Research, a small company in the UK. In 2014, building on that, a group of physicists at Johnson Space Center – Eagleworks Laboratories – showcased its test results on the EM Drive, which purportedly revealed how the contraption violated a law of physics called conservation of momentum. Monday’s forum highlighted the work of yet another group of scientists. Working on a modified version of the Eagleworks engine, the paper presented by these guys appeared to validate the JSC research. In calling for additional testing, the paper stated “Our measurements reveal thrusts as expected from previous claims after carefully studying thermal and electromagnetic interferences. If true, this could certainly revolutionize space travel.”
Whoa, right? Even better:
This latest installment in the controversy was presented by German scientists with Dresden University of Technology, led by its Space Systems chair Martin Tajmar. And this is where – if De Void were so inclined (and De Void most certainly isn’t) – this is where De Void would give it the Oliver Stone treatment.
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