A Cannae Drive thruster, built by American inventor and chemical engineer, Guido Fetta, is set to be launched into space on board a 6U CubeSat into a decaying low-Earth orbit in about six months, reports Science Alert. The Cannae Drive or “Q-Drive” is very similar to the electromagnetic propulsion drive (EMDrive).
Readers will remember that in Digital Journal last week, we described conventional rocket engines. Thrust in one direction is obtained by propelling exhaust outwards in the opposite direction. But with the EMDrive and Q-Drive technology, electricity is converted into microwaves within a cone-shaped, truncated cavity, pushing against the inside of the device, causing the thruster to accelerate in the opposite direction.
Fetta’s Q-Drive is based on Roger Shawyer’s original EMDrive design. Fetta is the CEO of Cannae Inc. and is so confident of his propulsion system that he has formed a new company, Theseus Space Inc. to commercialize the thruster technology being used in the upcoming satellite test. Theseus Space Inc. is working with its industrial partners, LAI International of Tempe, AZ and SpaceQuest Ltd. of Fairfax, VA in launching the satellite.
The 6U CubeSat is about the size of a shoe box and about one-quarter of it will be taken up by the Q-Drive. Fetta says he wants the satellite to stay up there for about six months says David Hambling, reporting for Popular Mechanics. Usually, these small satellites only last about six weeks in low-Earth orbit because they run out of propellant.
So the longer the satellite stays in orbit, we will know the Q-Drive is really producing thrust without propellant. And if it does work, that will be something to really get excited about. On top of that, physicists will have a lot of explaining to do because the demonstration will have totally blown Newton’s Third Law of Physics out of the water.
As Brendan Hesse explains for Digital Trends: “This is an important step for the EM Drive as it adds legitimacy to the technology and the tests done thus far, opening the door for other groups to replicate the tests. This will also allow other groups to devote more resources to uncovering why and how it works, and how to iterate on the drive to make it a viable form of propulsion.”
Hesse goes on to say that all the excitement over a peer-reviewed paper supposedly being published in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Journal of Propulsion and Power doesn’t mean that we will now be ready to go anywhere in the solar system, at least not just yet. But he also adds, “It’s the first step toward eventually realizing that possible future.”
