The story is the usual saga of American space tech going to waste. EM drive, a potential major breakthrough in space travel, which was ignored as usual by the usual cow pat consciousness of comatose Congressional spectators. The Chinese have now put it in to practice in testing after five years of research.
EM drive, if it can be made workable, already has a track record of revolutionary possibilities. It’s the invention of the wheel, in space travel terms. “Modern” rockets, invented thousands of years ago by the Chinese, have pathetic 5 percent payloads. EM drive, if it can do better, and indications are that it can, (anything could; rockets are hopelessly inefficient) could make transporting materials to and from Earth easy.
Speed and power are the only game in town
The other big issue is speed. EM drive is theoretically capable of much higher speeds, as well as infinitely better travel logistics. Rockets can deliver only so much power, and only for a short time. That has ramifications for all current projects. Anything which speeds up travel to Mars makes the mission a lot more doable. Anything which reduces costs and improves payload values is commercially viable, which rockets definitely are not.
To clarify:
1. If EM drive can carry commercial loads, it immediately turns the entire rocket based space industry in to a junkyard.
2. Space trade, particularly in high value elements, will be worth trillions of dollars annually. Guess who would own the working technology to carry that trade?
3. The rest of the solar system becomes accessible with a working drive. The East may not be the only thing that’s red, if that happens and China controls the drive.
There can be no greater testimony to the sheer senile madness of American space policy for the last 30 years that its edge in space technology has deteriorated so severely. Ignoring EM drive is typical of the mindless culture of failure which Washington has imposed on NASA – and human aspirations in space.
Space used to be largely American. Everybody else was decades behind America. The technological lead, with a few notable exceptions, has been virtually lost. In the same time it took China to become an economic giant on Earth, it could become the go-to nation for space.
The Chinese space program is evolving, too. They’re planning a moon landing and a Mars mission in the next few years. Add EM drive to the equation, and anything is possible. Don’t be too surprised if your grand-kids send you selfies from the local Chinese restaurant on Mars.
