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electric_ionland t1_jdvjtjv wrote

For anyone asking this is almost certainly in the same vein as the infamous "EM drive". They allegedly have a revolutionary propelantless propulsion system that has not been verified independently and where they cannot describe the physical principle behind it (not peer reviewed to boot).

Assuming it works it would break several fundamental physical principles like conservation of energy.

The company and its executives are also extremely sketchy with no real background in the field.

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PandaEven3982 t1_jdwojsh wrote

I will simply comment that we don't actually know how opiates work either. We have a few consistent guesses, but we don't know a lot more than we do know. When I think about miracles, I think about Dr. Szilard and 10% chances.

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NikStalwart t1_jdyer9a wrote

Hey if a company wants to use its own money to demo something, even if it is vaporware, who am I to argue?

I am sure people thought the radio was going to be vaporware as well.

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dingo1018 t1_jdvy0bm wrote

But DARPA has thrown some money into the ring and it's worth mentioning it has been shown to produce thrust in line with predictions apparently to the satisfaction of independent testing facility, it's a head scratcher, I don't claim to understand it at all. But I will watch with interest, if proven this really is something new.

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electric_ionland t1_jdvyvlt wrote

No there is no independent verification, they paid a test house to go work in their chamber and afaik none of the alleged independent people who looked at it have been named. This is not independent testing.

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OneFutureOfMany t1_jdw6yt2 wrote

Link?

The EM drive initial test results were all described as minor heating effects and equipment error and didn't scale.

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dingo1018 t1_jdwf4m0 wrote

It was in the above link, and I think the localised heating was the suggested reason for the pioneer anomalies. This QI if true would explain the EM drive (which is still under considerable study by DARPA) it would also do away with dark matter explanation of outer galaxy rotation which in turn would mean we don't have to search forever for another particle that might not exist.

Which is really the whole point, an alternative theory has been suggested, the only way to test it is with a space test but everyone looks at this experiment and says oh another EM drive, it's not it's an experiment, the possible results could open up genuine new science and all everyone thinks it's a scam or something are chomping at the bit to say 'eternal motion device' or fringe theory, ok it is a bit fringe, but we accept hawking radiation, it may be we have to accept quantised inertia, there could be an absolute smallest amount of inertia (it's super tiny)

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electric_ionland t1_jdwozvi wrote

> the only way to test it is with a space test

I have ran some mN scale measurement test. You can do vastly cheaper tests on the ground if you are not trying to extract as much money from investors as possible.

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wegqg t1_jdwv7b8 wrote

I can see you're a real smart guy.

Could I interest you in my perpetual motion machine that is guaranteed to make you a bazillionairre (this is a very large new number that hasn't been discovered yet).

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Strange_Flatworm1144 t1_jdw9m8r wrote

At least they have built something and are willing to test it (not like Shawyer), the results will speak for themselves.

Of course, if it doesn't work, there will be a gazillion reasons why it should have, but we will see.

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[deleted] t1_je3q196 wrote

All science creates these days are skeptics. Dreamers need to look elsewhere. God forbid we break some physical "laws" and get some actual new, tangible physics in our lifetimes. I'm glad they are taking it up and trying it. Even if it doesn't work, it's one thing we've ruled out. We need to accept the fact that without a substantial propulsion breakthrough we will be stuck here, so we need to start looking enthusiastically, even if it means looking under rocks or throwing things at the wall to see if they stick.

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johnnstokes99 t1_jecjj54 wrote

There's nothing to "rule out". This is literal quackery. If you want things to rule out, you can send money directly to my paypal and I'll pay spaceX to launch increasingly exotic combinations of random materials until you're out of money (and/or I am out of homes to buy).

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