[amsat-bb] NO EJECTION MASS Propulsion

[M5AKA]

Snake oil in space



On Tuesday, 5 August 2014, 0:43, Franklin Antonio <antonio at qti.qualcomm.com> wrote:
 


At 03:54 PM 8/4/2014, Robert McGwier wrote:
>I hope they aren't wrong because they clearly don't understand how it
>works!!!  http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140006052

The result is surely wrong.

When measuring MICROnewtons, from a device that's going to be getting 
very hot (because the microwave energy is dissipated in the walls of 
the cavity) you may need to do the experiment in a vacuum, to avoid 
air convection confusing the experiment.  In any case, they say they 
worked on the experiment for 8 days, which is not enough time to 
figure out all the engineering aspects of the experiment.

They did the test in a vacuum chamber (which means they must have 
been thinking along the lines of my statement above about convection, 
but they did the test with "the door closed but at ambient 
atmospheric pressure".  Maybe they didn't have enough time to do the 
tests at vacuum.

If they have resources to do more work, clearly pulling a vacuum on 
that chamber is the next thing to do.  I predict that the thrust will 
disappear as the air is pumped out of the chamber.

However, of course I'm not absolutely sure its wrong.  I'll be very 
happy if it turns out to be correct.

My bet, however, is firmly on the no side.

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