Daniel Lakeland points us to this news article by David Hambling from 2014, entitled “Nasa validates ‘impossible’ space drive.” Here’s Hambling:
Nasa is a major player in space science, so when a team from the agency this week presents evidence that “impossible” microwave thrusters seem to work, something strange is definitely going on. Either the results are completely wrong, or Nasa has confirmed a major breakthrough in space propulsion. . . .
He has built a number of demonstration systems, but critics reject his relativity-based theory and insist that, according to the law of conservation of momentum, it cannot work.
According to good scientific practice, an independent third party needed to replicate Shawyer’s results. As Wired.co.uk reported, this happened last year when a Chinese team built its own EmDrive and confirmed that it produced 720 mN (about 72 grams) of thrust, enough for a practical satellite thruster. . . . a US scientist, Guido Fetta, has built his own propellant-less microwave thruster, and managed to persuade Nasa to test it out. The test results were presented on July 30 at the 50th Joint Propulsion Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Astonishingly enough, they are positive. . . .
OK, that was 3.5 years ago. Any followups? A quick google search revealed this article by Guilio Prisco from 2017, “Theoretical Physicists Are Getting Closer to Explaining How NASA’s ‘Impossible’ EmDrive Works: The EmDrive propulsion system might be able to take us to the stars, but first it must be reconciled with the laws of physics.”
If I wanted to be snarky, I’d say they could do a 2-for-1 deal and power the Em-drive with cold fusion. But my physics knowledge is weak, so I’ll just say . . . who knows, maybe this is the interstellar drive we’ve all been waiting for! I’ll believe it once it appears in PNAS.