Quote:
Originally Posted by TrevorW
I wonder how much power would be needed to produce 1g thrust
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Hi,
Well, it says in the link that they got a Q value of 6.8 x 1000000 for their design. This is way efficient enough to put the theory to the test.
Elsewhere it says that theory predicts a specific thrust of 333 mN/kW when the Emdrive is going at 3 km/sec.
So at that stage, to get 1g force (9.8 mN) you only need about 34 kW input, or a weak light bulb.
Under the applications drop-down they say
"
If the 700 W (dc) engine was used as primary propulsion for a 50 kg science probe, ........... due to the effects of
equation 2, the thrust falls as the velocity increases, until .....a terminal velocity approaching 30 km/sec."
As far as I can make out, that terminal velocity, which is 0.01 % the speed of light, is the main barrier to getting anywhere fast. But propulsion without propellant!! Wow!! It is early days.
BTW you don't need to accelerate very fast to reach a good fraction of the speed of light generally. If you accelerate at just 1g (that is, you perceive your own weight normally) you would reach 50% the speed of light in 6 months.
That is an oversimplification, but this argument generally is why some quite weak sounding propulsion systems like solar sails have been proposed.
Good post Carl
Cheers