It's official: NASA's peer-reviewed EM Drive paper has finally been published

[Bob Schroeck]

http://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-offici ... -published]And the drive appears to be the real deal.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Labster]

Welllllll maybeeeee.  The report from Ars Technica is considerably less enthusiastic.  The main points are that the EM Drive is creating some readings, we don't exactly know if the readings are noise or thermal effects or God knows what or actual thrust, and this paper still wasn't very comprehensive.  But worth more testing?  Sure, why not.  I really really want this to work, too.  This would really open up the solar system if it actually works.
-- ∇×V

[Black Aeronaut]

There already has been a lot of testing going on and the results of each one has been the same: the device produces thrust with no propellants.

The big question that's been on everyone's mind has been how the hell it works, and unfortunately NASA won't move on this thing because they're afraid that after all the hype that it's not going to work for some ineffible reason.

Now that they at least have some idea of what's going on, NASA is about to move on to using it on a testing rig in LEO to see how long they can have it maintain orbit.

If the results are good... Well! Hello Mars, Hello Venus, Hello Grand Tour!

[hazard]

But not for humans. Isp is great, thrust? Not so much. It'd take too long to get going.

[Black Aeronaut]

Right now, the test-type (which is not even a -prototype- for crying out loud) is producing one millinewton per a kilowatt of power put into it.

How long do you think it's going to take them to improve the efficiency of this thing until it hits one newton per kilowatt?

[robkelk]

But not for humans. Isp is great, thrust? Not so much. It'd take too long to get going.

If it's possible to install one as a secondary drive, then we wouldn't need to coast from point to point in Hohmann transfer orbits any more.

Of course, that requires the primary drive having the capability to apply sufficient delta-v to the craft and the added mass of the secondary drive.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012