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[Putnam]

The EM drive

basically you got a box that you shoot microwaves into a highly reflective box that they bounce around in and it make tiny tiny amounts of thrust. The only problem is that it violates the Conservation of momentum, and Newton's Third Law, but it at least seems to work in testing.

It does not seem to work in testing, at least by any reasonable margins of error.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

The EM drive

basically you got a box that you shoot microwaves into a highly reflective box that they bounce around in and it make tiny tiny amounts of thrust. The only problem is that it violates the Conservation of momentum, and Newton's Third Law, but it at least seems to work in testing.

It does not seem to work in testing, at least by any reasonable margins of error.

Could you provide a link to the experiment?

[MarcAFK]

One experiment with the EM drive found the thrust generated changed direction when you flipped the axis of the measuring device, but not changing the orientation of the engine which is interesting to say the least.

[Orange Wizard]

I blame Heisenberg

[Starver]

One experiment with the EM drive found the thrust generated changed direction when you flipped the axis of the measuring device, but not changing the orientation of the engine which is interesting to say the least.

Forget the EM resonator.  The measuring device is obviously a reactionless drive using exotic futuretech science so far undiscovered!

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

I've seen a lot of junk science talking about various nonsense involving dark matter as if it's some exotic particle that might completely overturn physics. Many of these are about teleportation, time travel, exotic propulsion etc.
However dark matter represents matter we haven't yet seen that appears to be slowing the expansion of the universe. Astronomers recently did a survey where so many black holes were discovered that it would account for all the missing mass, take that exotic "dark matter" proponents.
Dank matter on the other hand will fuel societal developments well into the new century, and I for one welcome our new probot overlewds.

I've seen a lot of junk science talking about various nonsense involving dark matter as if it's some exotic particle that might completely overturn physics. Many of these are about teleportation, time travel, exotic propulsion etc.
However dark matter represents matter we haven't yet seen that appears to be slowing the expansion of the universe. Astronomers recently did a survey where so many black holes were discovered that it would account for all the missing mass, take that exotic "dark matter" proponents.

1. The expansion of the universe is accelerating. Dark matter accounts for the shape and behavior of galaxies, not the expansion of the universe.

2. While the black hole findings did give credence to MACHOs, there's still way too much dark matter for MACHOs to be the only dark matter AFAIK. WIMPs are still likely. They need not be exotic; in fact, by necessity if there are WIMPs they have mass and don't do anything electromagnetically, so no reaction propulsion.

Power source/fusion/etc. snip

Well the fastest way to get around the "needing buttload of matter/energy to start fusion reaction with" thing is with Antimatter Initiated Fusion. Which I know about from KSP so I'm not sure how far along the theories/applications on that are.

Also from KSP, and more specifically Scott Manley, full on Antimatter Reactors are apparently already a theoretical possibility [citation needed] but the main problem of which is releasing like THE WORST form of radiation. I believe it was neutron radiation, that basically penetrates everything ever.
Though I DO have something of a theory on this front.
Specifically, to my knowledge radiation tends to be a form of light, and thus have a wavelength, so you basically just apply destructive interference (think noise cancelling headphones) and bam, radiation contained, antimatter reactor is now a thing, world power issues solved.

One experiment with the EM drive found the thrust generated changed direction when you flipped the axis of the measuring device, but not changing the orientation of the engine which is interesting to say the least.

Could you all provide links to the experiments?

[MarcAFK]

Can't recall really, Wikipedia was there somewhere.
I can't seem to find any reference now to the thrust direction changing, except for one experiment where it could be made to reverse by changing the spring tension of the measuring apparatus.
It's possible the article I read earlier was mis interpreting that and stating the direction was variable rather than reversible.

[TheBiggerFish]

Ooh!  !!SCIENCE!!