The creator of a controversial electromagnetic space propulsion technology called EmDrive has finally had a paper peer reviewed and accepted by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
The paper, Second Generation EmDrive Propulsion Applied To SSTO Launcher And Interstellar Probe, by
British scientist Roger Shawyer was published in the journal Acta Astronautica and made available online on 10 July.
Shawyer conceptualised and developed the space propulsion technology EmDrive and first presented this in 1999. Shawyer proposes that based on the theory of special relativity, electricity converted into microwaves and fired within a closed cone-shaped cavity causes the microwave particles to exert more force on the flat surface at the large end of the cone (i.e. there is less combined particle momentum at the narrow end due to a reduction in group particle velocity), thereby generating thrust.
Shawyer spent years having his technology ridiculed by the international space science research community and being called a fraud. According to Shawyer, if the technology is ever commercially realised, EmDrive could transform the aerospace industry and potentially solve the energy crisis and climate change, while also speeding up space travel by making it much cheaper to launch satellites and spacecraft into orbit.
His critics say that according to the law of conservation of momentum, his theory cannot work as in order for a thruster to gain momentum in one direction a propellent must be expelled in the opposite direction, and the EmDrive is a closed system. However, Shawyer claims that following fundamental physics involving the theory of special relativity, the EmDrive does in fact preserve the law of conservation of momentum and energy.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/emdrive-ro...lsion-uavs-finally-passes-peer-review-1513223
