Joseph P Farrell – Over the holidays many important stories emerged, and I hope to be covering them this week prior to New Year’s, but one of those stories was China’s announcement that it has already been testing the so-called EM drive in space. This story was shared by many regular readers here, but here are two versions, and they both come with a lot of caveats:

• Chinese boffins: We’re testing an ‘impossible’ EM Drive IN SPAAAACE [link]
• China claims it’s already started testing an EM Drive in space [link]

Let’s look at the caveats for a moment, as expressed by Fiona MacDonald in the second article’s opening five paragraphs:

The whole world got excited last month when NASA published the first peer-reviewed paper on the ‘impossible’ electromagnetic, or EM, Drive, which appears to somehow defy physics by producing thrust without a propellant.

Their verdict was that it seems to work, although a lot of physicists still think the results are flawed. But now researchers in China have announced that they’ve already been testing the controversial drive in low-Earth orbit, and they’re looking into using the EM Drive to power their satellites as soon as possible.

Big disclaimer here – all we have to go on right now is a press conference announcement and an article from a government-sponsored Chinese newspaper (and the country doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to trustworthy research). Continue reading →