How viable or how far away would deployment of such an engine be from now? Commenter Casey makes an interesting point whether this is viable ot not:
This engine isn’t fast. 50 micronewtons is nothing. I mean that, it’s almost literally nothing. 50 micronewtons could barely propel a fly’s mass to Earth’s escape velocity, even without drag…and that’s assuming only the fly, not the weight of the engine, is taken into account. Now, yes, once you get into orbit you don’t have to worry about these things, this engine will not accelerate anything in a timely fashion. Now, you might say, “But, Casey! Technology will evolve and we could put a bigass version of this engine!” Sure, absolutely…but you’ll need a power source. Solar panels or a nuclear reactor would be the way to go…you’ll need several reactors to even make an insignificant amount of thrust (probably not even noticeable to the humans aboard the craft) or a truly incredible amount of solar panels – I’m talking miles wide in both width and length…then you have all this extra weight so you need even more thrust. Don’t forget that this craft has to be somehow deployed into orbit…
As with many prototypes and theory tests, this one is clearly early on. We hope you enjoy the videos!
And you can cook with it also
This is interesting, so many scientists say it’s complete bull, and about as real as unicorn farts. But I want it to work so bad I’m keeping my hopes up anyway.
Eventually it will come to pass, but unlikely during my lifetime.
Lol
I volunteer you to try it.
Hot pockets all around?
😉
Please! They already do.
With three independent tests all confirming thrust either the microwaves create a false indication of thrust by interacting with the sensors or…eeeep….actually works. Clearly it will take a leap forward from our current level of physics to leave or solar system with enough speed to go somewhere meaningful
Given the vagueness of “future”, I guess they’d better…
So put a small model in space, try it, and find out for Pete sake
Nasa is late as$#%&!@* This pic is old like at least over 6 years old. This tech is also not originally NASA ‘s
and they can heat up their lunch also
Sweet