NEW YORK: At NASA’s Eagleworks Labs, located at the Johnson Space Center, scientists are working on a new space travel technology that could, if successful, dramatically reduce the time necessary for space voyages.
Titled electromagnetic propulsion or EM drive, the new technology centers on creating the propulsion necessary to move a spacecraft without using any propellant.
Instead of using fuel, the EM drive bounces electromagnetic microwaves inside a closed chamber to generate electrical energy and convert it into thrust.
No emissions are produced during the process.
Many scientists are skeptical about EM drive technology, which they consider “fringe” because it violates the law of conservation of momentum, a key component of Newtonian physics.
According to Newton’s laws, moving one object forward requires another object to move backward. In traditional spaceflight, propellant pushes vehicles forward and is then emitted behind them.
Because space is an airless vacuum, skeptics argue that nothing can move in it without use of a propellant.
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