Any technology that can drastically reduce the travel time between planets in space is a welcome step and scientists at NASA's Eagleworks Laboratories might be heading towards this direction as a paper they wrote on the controversial EmDrive technology has passed the peer review. The review is likely to be published in AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power, by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
This shows the confidence among scientists to achieve the possible results, noted IBTimes UK.
The paper has been titled as "Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio Frequency Cavity in Vacuum."
Paul March, an engineer with NASA's Eagleworks Laboratories, had suggested on the NASA Spaceflight forum that "Past that I can't say more other than to listen to Dr. Rodal on this topic, and please have patience about when our next EW paper is going to be published. Peer reviews are glacially slow..."
Dr. Jose Rodal is an independent scientist who had confirmed that the paper had cleared the peer scrutiny (post has been since deleted).
The EmDrive technology was the invention of British scientist Roger Shawyer and was proposed in 1999. Being based on the theory of special relativity, it notes that the thrust is generated by converting electricity into microwaves and fired in closed conical devices. This caused more force to be exerted on the flat end of the cone by microwave particles.
This would mean that there would be no requirement of propellant for its engines, and microwaves could be powered by solar energy. This can also mean there could be a smaller and lighter spacecraft that would not need to carry any fuel. The move might help humans to perhaps travel to interstellar space in lesser time.
But the technology has its naysayers as it challenges the fundamentals of our current scientific understanding of how things work. EmDrive defies the law of conservation of momentum that says objects do not move unless force is applied from outside.
We might have to wait for the review to be published to see if it answers some of the questions that critics have posed.