China said it overtook NASA in building a “warp drive”
technology that could prove that interstellar space travel
is more than just science fiction. The country appears to
have funded controversial research since 2010, according to
the China Academy of Science and Technology (CAST).
They added: “NASA is simply” reconfirming “what it has
already known. Recently national research institutes (NRI)
have performed a series of long-term and frequent tests on
EmDrive,” said Chen Yue, head of the division CAST
communications satellite. “The results of the experiments
published by NASA can be said to reconfirm the idea. We have
actually established many claims on multiple prototype
principles.”
Chen said CAST has already built a test device for EmDrive
and that it is being tested in the low-orbit crewed
Tiangong-2 satellite.
“The formation of an experimental confirmation platform to
complete the micro-thrust measurement test at the milli
level, as well as several years of frequent experiments and
research on the corresponding interference factors, confirm
that thrust exists in this type of engine.”
Known as the EmDrive Propulsion System (EPS), warp drive
technology was previously thought impossible because it
violated the laws of physics.
While the spaceships must generate the thrust to push them
in the correct direction, the EmDrive has been designed to
generate the thrust by exploiting the light particles and
bouncing the microwaves inside a closed cone-shaped
compartment. Such movement produces a push at the thin end
of the cone, pushing the engine forward, the Mirror noted.
However, while the research has brought big news and has
been admired by many, other critics have continued that the
idea is incompatible with Newton’s momentum conservation,
which claims that a body will not move unless it is applied.
an external force. If such technology is successful, the
space travel could bring humans to the moon in just four
hours and to Mars in a few weeks. But aside from the highly
coveted trip to Mars, British engineer Roger Shawyer also
pointed out other important things that EmDrive could do
for the world.
“They will be solar-powered power plants, long-haul flights
from city to city that consume hydrogen. It is convenient
and good to do and will revolutionize our world in the
coming decades,” he said.