The 'impossible' EM Drive is about to be tested in space Time to get to the bottom of this crazy thing.


Back in September I saw a bunch of articles about actually testing the EMdrive in space...

Is it really going to space? Has it actually booked a trip? Does NASA/eagleworks have the budget for this?

I didn't notice this experiment mentioned in any of the recent EMdrive peer review discussions and was surprised.

I couldn't find any raw details other then space tabloids claiming it booked a flight, and wanted to know more details.


UPDATE (12/14/2016): Apparently, aside from the Cannae launch, the EmDrive is actually already in space, according to a recent announcement by China, who claims to be testing it in orbit.

No, the media has confused things. Cannae, whose tech is being launched, issued a release clarifying things:

There has been a lot of erroneous information in media articles regarding Cannae’s upcoming launch of a cubesat mission into LEO. To clarify our previous post and press release: Cannae is not using an EmDrive thruster in our upcoming launch. Cannae is using it’s [sic] own proprietary thruster technology which requires no on-board propellant to generate thrust. In addition, this project is being done as a private venture. Cannae is only working with our private commercial partners on the upcoming mission.

  • $\begingroup$ Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. $\endgroup$ – called2voyage Dec 7 '16 at 19:50
  • $\begingroup$ Cannae's website is decidedly vague, but their satellite looks like it's using an electric sail to deflect ambient plasma. $\endgroup$ – Mark Dec 7 '16 at 21:48
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    $\begingroup$ @Mark This is exactly why any speculation as to whether they're using the Cannae drive (an RF resonant cavity thruster) or something else is pretty fruitless at this point. They say it's not the EmDrive, they say it is private, they haven't released any other details. That's the best we have to go on. $\endgroup$ – called2voyage Dec 7 '16 at 21:51

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