EM Drive

[pbelter]

https://x.com/memcculloch/status/198348 ... 10512?s=19

Thrust

[kurt9]

I'm open minded but very skeptical on this. All other research to this date suggests that gravity and inertia are not quantized. I would be very surprised if this turns out not to be the case.

[Carl White]

If there is thrust, it isn't evident to me from the orbital data visible on celestrak.org.

Either they haven't cranked the drive up yet, or the effect must be subtle. If it's the latter, unfortunately no one is going to be convinced of anything. It needs to be boosted into a higher orbit (or at least maintain a given orbit for a lengthy time) for it to be definitive.

[Skipjack]

If there is thrust, it isn't evident to me from the orbital data visible on celestrak.org.

Either they haven't cranked the drive up yet, or the effect must be subtle. If it's the latter, unfortunately no one is going to be convinced of anything. It needs to be boosted into a higher orbit (or at least maintain a given orbit for a lengthy time) for it to be definitive.

This!

[mvanwink5]

As a WAG, EM Drive is being turned off & on to get effect data, so altitude won’t be evident in the beginning. Anyone with inside contacts to know?

[usesbiggerwords]

Any news on this? McCulloch's Twitter feed has no updates.

[pbelter]

Here is what he wrote in a private thread

Unfortunately, as you may know, there was a engineering glitch so the thruster could not be turned on for more than a minute before problems arose, so the hoped-for orbit raised of kilometers did not come to pass. Which leaves us in a less than ideal position. Can we see if there is a thrust? We probably cannot do this for certain, but we have some data so it makes sense to see what we can get from it.

The observed rise (compared to its twin) was 600 metres in 90 days, which is 6.6 metres per day. Therefore the IVOsat moved up relative to its twin satellite by about the height you might expect if the Quantum Drive was being fired every other day for one minute on average.