EM-Drive space ship to Mars?

[ace.1991]

Okay, first off i'm not 100% sure this is the correct place for this question. If it isn't, please can it be moved to where it should be. Thanks

 

 

Anyway, I have a few questions relating to writing project I'm working on: basically a story about a mission to Mars with a space ship that uses EM-Drive technology as it's propulsion. I have tried my best to figure this out myself but I can't seem to make sense of it, so I figured this was the best place to find people who could either help to solve it, or at least explain it to me (I hope).

 

 

My questions are (with the assumption that the EM-Drive actually works in large-scale and that its power-to-thrust ratio holds to current theories):

 

With a vessel approximately 1,500,000Kg in weight, with a 4.7 Megawatt power supply...

 

What would be the maximum velocity achievable for the vessel?

and how long would it take to travel to mars and back under its own power?

 

 

Thanks

 

Links with more information:

http://emdrive.com/firstgenapplications.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_resonant_cavity_thruster

Edited April 22, 2016 by ace.1991

[Enthalpy]

This EM drive does not work. The claimed figures are not plausible. What's within science is a thrust equal to P/c where P is the emitted EM power and c is 3*10⁸m/s. 4.7MW would push 16mN, oh good. So you can forget the vessel to Mars.

 

What makes sense within physics is, for instance:

1. Chemical propulsion. Bulky, lengthy.
2. Nasa's Vasimr and other ion engines, provided they have enough power and the corresponding cold sink. Variants exist with similar performance, the Vasimr's development is more advanced.
3. My sunheat engine
   http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/76627-solar-thermal-rocket/
   But with an SLS-sized rocket and reasonable engineering, I got sensible figures only for a pair of 50t vessels
   http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/83289-manned-mars-mission/
4. Solar sails, if we can build them much, much bigger than presently, and much bigger than a rugby pitch too
   http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/78265-solar-sails-bits-and-pieces/
   they need serious development, for which no path is known
5. A few more, which look less promising.

So to write a story that is (necessarily) a strong extrapolation but makes scientific sense, you might choose wild upscales of an ion engine or of the sunheat engine.

 

Very important too: don't concentrate on the propulsion of a single manned vessel. All propulsion methods better than chemical have a tiny thrust, so taking advantage of them is much a matter of scenario. Use slow efficient transfers to preset unmanned hardware at Mars.

[swansont]

!

Moderator Note

please stay on-topic and address the question that was asked, rather than hijacking the discussion