Electromagnetic drive has been around for 15 years, and the net commentary is that it’s “impossible”.
A German scientist doesn’t agree. Martin Tajmar, who has a “history of debunking fanciful propulsion systems”, says electromagnetic drive (EMD) does work. It seems the thing did produce a measurable thrust in 2014. Tajmar replicated NASA’s work, and says it performed as claimed.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald:
The EMDrive theoretically works by converting electric power into microwaves which bounce around inside an enclosed cavity, using the difference in radiation to move through an environment. This violates the laws of physics, which state that if something moves forward it must also push something back, as no propellant is expelled to balance the engine’s momentum.
Huh? This is an issue? The theory of conservation of momentum is based on the equal and opposite forces principle, attaining an equilibrium. The theory is usually demonstrated by a collision analogy. Therefore, equal forces in collision achieve stalemate? Wrong. Two cars colliding at 100 mph don’t come off with no damage. They get trashed by the transferred energy of the collision. This is energy we’re talking about, not momentum.
Atoms can collide and release enormous energy. Is conservation of momentum an issue? It’s merely part of a larger and far more complex process which took hundreds of years to understand. It is patently absurd to say there are no reciprocal forces involved in any kind of electromagnetic system. Are you seriously trying to pretend EM forces don’t generate momentum and reaction? Contradiction in terms, to start with. EM forces push against other EM forces, by definition. On the basis of that “no conservation of momentum” theory, similar poles on a magnet wouldn’t repel each other, and atoms couldn’t behave as they do. Newtonian laws emphasize whole system mechanics, like conservation of energy, not just parts of systems. Physical events don’t occur in isolation from each other.
Therefore, if something works, it isn’t, and can’t, be contradicting the laws of physics.
It just means you don’t really understand the applications of the theory to the facts. Kindly also note that Newton himself missed the square in the formula for gravity.
These ancient laws are becoming real obstacles. The “laws of physics” were written in the pre-spaceflight era. Apparently, science is doing what religion did in the Dark Ages — claiming a monopoly on information.
Spectator Science as an obstacle course for innovation
….Which leaves us with a problem. It’s a big problem. The problem is Spectator Science, which learns things in college like grade schoolers and then apparently refuses to learn anything else. They can’t even see the contradictions in their own statements.
Like politics and religion, this insular form of science is now refuting actual, demonstrated facts. It simply regurgitates what it’s claiming to have learned as if there was nothing else to be discovered. It’s actually worse than pseudo-science, because it does nothing but get in the way of real science.
This is the mentality of this obstacle course previously called “science”:
• The rules can’t be wrong, therefore the facts are wrong.
• All people with new information should be ridiculed or actually abused for finding new information. (I know two US scientists who were actually treated like garbage for a single finding. No attempt at replication, no evaluation, just abuse. It was like Facebook bullying. This is your sainted “science”.)
• A pre-Mandelbrot fossil like the Theory of Relativity, written by someone with an IQ which was 3 points lower than Jayne Mansfield’s, and who thought time was the fourth dimension, (it isn’t, any more than a square is a cube) shalt be the only show in town.
Meanwhile, back in the unfashionable place known as reality, the world is making do with ridiculous 5 percent payloads, incredible expense, endless time wasting, and total inefficiency is sabotaging space exploration. This is happening specifically because this lazy geriatric holiday camp of a science can’t be bothered developing better drives. That’s the net result of all this obstruction.
It’s like the military industrial or oil industry mindset, gouging the nation for inferior quality products and monopolizing debate on any subject. The insistence on “no new physics discoveries” is bordering on fanatical dogmatism, and about as useful.
This branch of science hasn’t done a useful thing in decades. All it’s done is sit around looking pleased with itself for finding a Higgs boson. The other, remarkably unproductive and expensive hobby is the game of hide and seek with dark matter, in which actual diagrams and graphics from the 1970s and 1990s have been used to “explain” the subject.
This is science?
This is paid intellectual wanking, incarnate.
Where are the new power systems, the new technological efficiencies, the new and better ideas? Where are the fantastic transport systems, maglev, medical systems, comm systems, and non-Jurassic computers? Sure as hell not getting developed by Geniuses with Tenure R Us.
This isn’t the first time science has obstructed innovation in space flight drive research. The VASIMIR project, a comparatively straightforward plasma drive, was labelled a hoax. It isn’t. It’s currently under testing with NASA funding.
Let’s clarify – Humanity needs a working drive and much better economics in space tech. That’s not being delivered. NASA demonstrated that EMD works, and these Spectator Scientists are saying it doesn’t?
Why?
Can there be a rational reason for this rabid insistence on failure?
Anything which obstructs the development of an efficient drive is basically treason to humanity. Earth can’t support the projected future populations. Space is full of useful resources. Why would anyone obstruct that?
Space travel could open up endless opportunities for exploration, new science, business, technology, and improve human economics to an almost unimaginable degree. Even these primitive rockets have rewritten virtually the whole human lifestyle in two generations.
The other good thing about space travel will be that people with real minds will be able to get as far away as possible from these obstructive, roadkill-like vermin and their prehistoric mentalities. Who wants to wait for that?
Do you really think people are going to sit around listening to nay-sayers forever? Why should anyone wait for someone to condescend to agree to the invention of the wheel? Why should do-nothings be allowed to spend decades in total failure to even consider finding a working drive, while obstructing and abusing those who are actually trying?
You’re in the way of a super nova, boys, and that’s usually not a good place to be. Either make yourselves useful for once in your worthless Spectator Science lives, or get out of the bloody way.
Anyway, we have a new quote for the ages — “It works, therefore it’s impossible.” You’ll be remembered for something, after all.
