EmDrive – Propulsion for the Future?
Yesterday three of us were lucky enough to be invited to attend the Space: 08 event at the Barbican Centre.
The highlight of the event for me was the Masterclass conducted by Roger Shawyer the Director of SPR Ltd. After introducing himself and explaining his background in various satellite launch products, Roger went on the explain his EmDrive, a revolutionary propulsion system for both satellite launch and manoeuvring.
Now back on the Island with a net connection, I have done a bit of digging around on the web and found stacks of reports on the EmDrive, among them:
- New Scientist with a whole string of peer comments which are worth a read.
- Wikipedia has some more detail
- Yawiki
New Scientist raised a lot of comment – mostly negative, over its coverage and I think it’s fair to say that the scientific community are very skeptical of the whole idea. I recommend you at least have a read about it and then make up your own mind.
Were we, yesterday, in the presence of the man who will revolutionise space (and perhaps other) travel or were we listening to somebody who, despite apparently having a solid CV, has lost the plot? Either way Roger has convinced enough people (DTI, Smart Award etc) to financially support further R & D and of course publicise the device to people like me!
Personally I hope it works – perhaps then the web will be filled with the writings of detractors “eating” their words!
Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Hobbies, Scams, Techie
Just a mention, I know Roger personally and he’s a great speaker.
Ali.