Electromagnetic Drive Research is Undergoing Peer Review

That NASA’s Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory, named Eagleworks, have been working on an electromagnetic propulsion drive is nothing new, however, it is far from the power of the ‘warp drive’ from popular sci-fi series such as Star Trek. This EM drive is built on a theoretical method of generating propulsion in space by making use of microwaves contained within a small chamber to create thrust.

Whether or not this drive truly works, a post in NASA’s spaceflight forum by an Eagleworks researcher, Paul March, had him stating that they had developed a method of propulsion that required no propellant, but the lack of peer-reviewed studies to back up their research made confirmation of its existence difficult. Now, in a response to a thread on the same forum regarding the fate of Eagleworks and the EM drive, March asked that they “please have patience about when our next EW paper is going to be published.” He continued to state that “Peer reviews are glacially slow…” which would imply that a paper on the topic is currently in the process of being reviewed.

Should the EM drive be proven to work, it would give cause to reconsider some of our laws of physics, as the conservation of momentum would be broken by propellant-less thrust. After all, without something to push back, there can be no thrust, so even if this isn’t the lightspeed-busting warp-drive we would like, it will certainly be a big deal.