Posted under Future Tech
EM Drive Takes Shape
It seems from the outset to be something out of a StarWars novel.
A propulsion system that emits nothing at all! It just works… all it needs is electricity.
EMdrive prototype thruster
The EMdrive (ElectroMagnetic Drive) is the brain child of UK scientist, Roger Shawyer.
He worked his way up through the aerospace industry, designing and building navigation and communications equipment for military and commercial satellites, before becoming a senior aerospace engineer at Matra Marconi Space (later part of EADS Astrium) in Portsmouth, near where he now lives. He was also a consultant to the Galileo project, Europe’s satellite navigation system, which engineers are now testing in orbit and for which he negotiated the use of the radio frequencies it needed.
With that pedigree, you’d imagine Shawyer would be someone the space industry would have listened to. Far from it. While working at Astrium, Shawyer proposed that the company develop his idea. “I was told in no uncertain terms to drop it,” he says. “This came from the very top.”