chrismb wrote:This could be equally claimed for the EM drive.Skipjack wrote:But the mach thruster does not break the conservation of momentum! Just like a wheel pushes against the ground, the mach thruster pushes against the rest of the universe.
I dont quite see the problem with that. It still needs energy in order to accelerate from what I understand. So it does not violate the conservation of energy either.
The EM- drive is- from what I understand- a very different matter.
It is, merely, a claim that ME drive doesn't break conservation of momentum. It sure as heck looks like it does to me.
An EM drive is just an ME drive going backwards.
I don't know how closely anyone else has kept up with this, but years ago when I was looking at it I recall reading that Sawyers idea came from a practical problem they were having with satellite position keeping. Apparently he noticed that the satellites he managed were moving out of position and it appeared to be consistent with the direction of their microwave transmissions.
In other words, he claimed that real world experiments indicated a force of some sort which required propellant to offset.
That is supposedly what got him started on his "research."
Don't know if any of it is true, but if it is, real world experiment beats theory any day of the week.