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RE: TIL That NASA EM Drive Engine Does In Fact Works - We Can Go To Moon In 4 Hours And To Mars In 70 Days
At the moment it's all just theoretical. I suspect there will be 3 stages: first lift-off the cargo to Earth's orbit, then transfer it to em-drive spaceship, then stop on the destination planet orbit and transfer cargo for descent to another type of ship. EM Drive should be used only in vacuum.
Yeah, I realize we're not able to just strap on to one of these then shoot ourselves to the moon. I'm guessing though, that stage from earth orbit to moon orbit using the EM would require the thing to be "on" almost the entire time. Building thrust half way, maybe one hour of those 4 hours disengaged then burning retrograde the final hour to again build up thrust to slow down. Unless it fires up fast like a traditional rocket... but I can't see it working like that. If they can figure out how to get a big burst though, that would be interesting, game changer for sure.
Is there a problem with radiation leakage? I thought the microwaves were generated inside the metal cone and thus the only thing that should escape is heat.
@nonameslefttouse If the theory of operation is correct, you have thrust after 1/2 wave length of microwaves. Or, practically instantaneous. It is just a very tiny amount of thrust, but continuous, always on as long as you have power and cooling.
Air friction will most likely cancel thrust, that's why it may be usable only in vacuum.