The EmDrive - To Use or Not?

Picture Credit: Peswiki

When I was finishing Burning Eagle, I came across the EmDrive. It's a device that allegedly produces thrust with nothing but microwaves. No propellant necessary: just a power source is needed.

The creator, Roger Sawyer, has been ridiculed since building the device in 2006. The system appears to be a reactionless drive (what the hell is it pushing against?). If this is so, then the EmDrive breaks the conservation of momentum. You can see why this has not sat well with the scientific community.

In 2008, a Chinese group tried replicating his experiment, and reported success. However, no one took them seriously. This was the state of things at the time of my writing. I had to make a decision: would the Atlantis freezer ship be kitted with anti-matter engines - or an EmDrive?

I went with anti-matter: no one was questioning the science behind it. The EmDrive was simply too hot to handle.

Then, just a couple of days ago, NASA announced it had conducted a similar experiment. The results were positive.  There are still questions (the control showed thrust, as well as the experiment. How does that make any sense?), but NASA's involvement has given the EmDrive, street cred. More experiments will follow, and the matter will be settled, either way.

My problem though, is that it impacts my new book, The Pathfinders.

The Pathfinders is about the first interstellar colonies of the Burning Eagle universe. Occurring before the Hedrons were found, interstellar travel is at the book's core.

I had planned for the colony ships to use anti-matter. Now, I'm not so sure. The EmDrive is too much to ignore, but too little to use. If I leave it out, I risk publishing a dated book. If I use it, the book could end up pseudo-science rubbish.

One possibility is to write both - chapters dealing with both anti-matter, and EmDrive systems. Then I can put off the decision till the book is finished. This will come with its own challenges, but it puts off the final decision.

Either way, it will be interesting to see how the EmDrive pans out.

Picture credit: Wired