Paper: here
Layman's terms article: here (among others)
So: this is the EM drive. It's basically a copper cone you fire microwaves into, and it generates thrust, around ten times what you can get from a solar sail. In order to do that, it has to break a couple of laws of physics - like Newton's third law.
When first announced, it was widely assumed to be a hoax, but now a NASA team operating out of Houston say they've replicated the result, and that the thrust produced doesn't seem to come from any of the usual sources.
Their hypothesis for how it works involves overturning the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics - in other words, goodbye Schrodinger's Cat. The alternative is Pilot Wave Theory, which (very simply) says that particles have actual locations, but are carried along by undetectable waves. It's quite an appealing theory - it perfectly replicates the standard experiments, like the double slit experiment - but hasn't really been taken up before.
I'm having difficulty understanding how pilot waves lead to EM drive; it looks like NASA are suggesting the 'waves' act on the quantum vacuum - meaning that 'vacuum' has an energy all of its own, and isn't properly 'empty' - meaning the drive moves one way, the waves propagate the other, and momentum is preserved. Not really sure, like I said, but they insist it works, and works exactly the same in vacuum and atmosphere, to boot.
Let me be clear: if the EM drive does work, it's simultaneously a reactionless drive (no exhaust), a torch-drive (can be run continuously, making it perfect for least-time courses across space), and a stardrive (it can take you up to appreciable fractions of lightspeed with no input other than electricity). It would fundamentally alter our relationship with space, and (not incidentally) render about half of science fiction as laughably obsolete as Asimov's slide-rules.
I don't think it's real. I know, it's NASA, but this would overturn too much too quickly and too simply. I think they'll find some obvious explanation, just like the superluminal neutrinos a few years back. It will suck, but I expect it.
But I'm not going to make Randall's Wager. I'm going to be an optimist; I'm going to bet you guys the opposite. Here we go:
At some point in the near future, someone (NASA? China? The inventor?) will put an EM drive in space. I bet anyone who chooses to take me up on it that the drive will generate thrust in orbit, and that it will not be shown to do so in a manner we already knew about. If I'm wrong (ie, if the EM drive doesn't work in space), I will give anyone who takes the bet either a short (less than 500 word) story or a picture of their choice. If you take the bet, then you need to say what you're wagering if you're wrong and it does work.
Any takers?
hS
(You can also jump in on my side of the bet. I think that means that everyone on the losing side has to give their wager to everyone on the winning side.)