NASA Research Findings Stun Scientists, Seemingly Defy Important Law of Physics

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Nearly 20 years ago, a British scientist named Roger Shawyer invented a theoretical rocket propulsion system that creates thrust without needing propellant. Known as the “EmDrive,” Shawyer’s invention relies on microwave technology to generate momentum.

“[The] EmDrive generates thrust by bouncing around electromagnetic energy (in this case, microwave photons) in a closed, cone-shaped chamber,” explained “National Geographic” in a recent article. “As those photons collide with the chamber’s walls, they somehow propel the device forward, despite the fact that nothing is released from the chamber.”


Because rockets today are laden with heavy fuel tanks, the EmDrive would be an innovative, lightweight means of space travel that could significantly reduce costs and increase speeds. In theory, an EmDrive engine could send a spacecraft to Mars in just 70 days.


Scientists were initially skeptical of Shawyer’s idea because it seems to contradict Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. How could the EmDrive generate thrust in one direction if it does not expel propellant in the opposite direction?

“Without any propellant being pushed out, there should be no momentum, breaking the conservation of momentum rule,” an online report in “WIRED” stated. “Either the laws of physics as we know them are wrong, or the EmDrive theory isn’t quite right.”

Consequently, most of the scientific community dismissed the EmDrive concept as fringe pseudoscience, saying it contradicted both math and physics. One scientist described it as “a really bad idea” that defies “standard physics.”

In spite of the scientific community’s incredulity, NASA tested Shawyer’s concept at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. They published their findings earlier this month in an online peer-reviewed journal article, concluding that the EmDrive technology appears to work, producing 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt of thrust in NASA’s tests.

“[NASA’s paper ] is the first peer-reviewed research ever published on the EM Drive, which firmly takes it out of the realm of pseudoscience into a technology that’s worth taking skeptically, but seriously,” reported “Business Insider.” “The next step for the EM Drive is for it to be tested in space, which is scheduled to happen in the coming months, with plans to launch the first EM Drive having been made back in September.”

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