Peer Reviewed paper on EM-Drive

[aramis]

A peer-reviewed paper on the EMDrive is slated for december in
[quote=IFLS]Update (2 September): It has been confirmed to IFLScience by the AIAA that a paper on the EmDrive is being published in December 2016. They said:

“The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Journal of Propulsion and Power has accepted for publication a paper in the area of electromagnetic propulsion. However, it is AIAA’s policy not to discuss the details of peer reviewed papers before/until they are published. We currently expect the paper in question to be published in December 2016.”[/quote]
Source: http://www.iflscience.com/technology/ru ... lly-works/
IFLS's title is not quite congruent to their text, but even getting it accepted for peer review, let alone publication, is a major step. Be interesting to see the paper.

[southwestforests]

Here is one reference to a paper which might also be worth looking at,

"Abstract
Recent reports about propulsion without reaction mass have been met on one hand with enthusiasm and on the other hand with some doubts. Namely, closed metal cavities, when fueled with microwaves, have delivered thrust that could eventually maintain satellites on orbits using solar power. However, the measured thrust appears to be without any apparent exhaust. Thus the Law of Action-Reaction seems to have been violated. We consider the possibility that the exhaust is in a form that has so far escaped both experimental detection and theoretical attention. In the thruster’s cavity microwaves interfere with each other and invariably some photons will also end up co-propagating with opposite phases. At the destructive interference electromagnetic fields cancel. However, the photons themselves do not vanish for nothing but continue in propagation. These photon pairs without net electromagnetic field do not reflect back from the metal walls but escape from the resonator. By this action momentum is lost from the cavity which, according to the conservation of momentum, gives rise to an equal and opposite reaction. We examine theoretical corollaries and practical concerns that follow from the paired-photon conclusion.
I. INTRODUCTION
Thrust without exhaust is of course impossible. Namely, for every action there has to be an equal and opposite reaction. This conservation of momentum entails that a rocket can accelerate forwards only by directing backwards a force of equal magnitude. Yet, certain resonant cavities, when fueled with microwaves, deliver thrust without apparent exhaust.1,2 The thrust has been detected independently3–9 but there is no consensus about its origin. Possible side-effects have been pointed out, and hence certain experiments have been inconclusive about the thrust.10 Also credibility of some earlier experimental results has been recently reconsidered in relation to instrumental precision.11
Since explanations12,13 and their refutations14–17 have not been conclusive, we bring up a new line of thought to the profound discourse that targets to important applications, most notably to keep satellites on orbits. We maintain that the EM drive, like any other propulsion engine, does convert its propellant to expellant, but its exhaust has escaped both experimental detection and theoretical attention."

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/jo ... 1.4953807#

[Cralis]

Did I just recently read a report that someone is going to build a satellite using the EM drive to test it?

EDIT: More information http://www.sciencealert.com/the-impossi ... d-in-space

[aramis]

If it works in space, all bets are off on Mars. It could put mars to under a month's travel at closest hohman approach.

WHich puts it well into the doable for martian orbit and back missions. It also puts the Oort Cloud into "be there this year" reach.

Tiny continuous acceleration is FAST.

While I personally have little doubt that it will work (I've read four papers showing clear results and attempting to null them by a variety of test variations), it's quite possible that it will not work as expected in orbit. I'll laugh maniacally if it produces more than expected in orbit...

Oh, and I'm of the school of thought that, when engineering or biology produces function and physics says it cannot, Physics needs to change.

[Cralis]

If it works in space, all bets are off on Mars. It could put mars to under a month's travel at closest hohman approach.

WHich puts it well into the doable for martian orbit and back missions. It also puts the Oort Cloud into "be there this year" reach.

And best of all? It's a CHEAP drive by comparison. Cheap to build. Cheap to power. If it really performs, it's a game changer, that's for sure.

Tiny continuous acceleration is FAST.

Well, except when you're about to hit something

While I personally have little doubt that it will work (I've read four papers showing clear results and attempting to null them by a variety of test variations), it's quite possible that it will not work as expected in orbit. I'll laugh maniacally if it produces more than expected in orbit...

Oh, and I'm of the school of thought that, when engineering or biology produces function and physics says it cannot, Physics needs to change.

That's true. But the problem is: how? That's always been the issue. We know it's not complete, we just don't know how it's not complete.

The big issue here is that it's such a simple concept that it's nearly unbelievable it hasn't been detected before.

[procyon]

I will wait for more tests, but I am skeptical.
If they are attributing the 'thrust' to errant photons creating thrust - you would be able to create a more effective 'thruster' by simply using the solar arrays to power a flashlight used as a thruster. Same principle - sending photons in a direction and waiting for the 'implied mass' of the energy emitted to create thrust.

So maybe there is some other dynamic creating the 'thrust'. But I will need more data supporting this before I am sold on it.

[Whitecold]

I will wait for more tests, but I am skeptical.
If they are attributing the 'thrust' to errant photons creating thrust - you would be able to create a more effective 'thruster' by simply using the solar arrays to power a flashlight used as a thruster. Same principle - sending photons in a direction and waiting for the 'implied mass' of the energy emitted to create thrust.

So maybe there is some other dynamic creating the 'thrust'. But I will need more data supporting this before I am sold on it.

My thoughts exactly. Field theory is not really my specialty, but I don't see where excess momentum over what the generated photons carry.
It can't be that tough, photon momentum is ridiculously low. A kW gives you a lousy 3 uN, 1000 times lower than the claimed thrust of the system.