Following the positive results last year and early this year, Eagleworks have been able to dedicate more and better hardware to the experiment. They plan to conduct the experiment with more controls at higher power this year, and when they are able to achieve results higher than 100 micronewtons for either device, they plan on having the test replicated at the Glenn Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Lab, and John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.
If the experiment for either or both devices is replicated at higher power, and again at the other labs, it is likely that the physics community will work very hard to try and invalidate the experiments as there is little explanation for the results.

Abstract:
The EMDrive has been proposed as a revolutionary propellant less thruster using a resonating microwave cavity. It is claimed to work on the difference in radiation pressure due to the geometry of its tapered resonance cavity. We attempted to replicate an EM Drive and tested it on both a knife-edge balance as well as on a torsion balance inside a vacuum chamber. After developing a numerical model to properly design our cavity for high efficiencies in close cooperation with the EM Drive's inventor, we built a breadboard out of copper with the possibility to tune the resonance frequency in order to match the resonance frequency of the magnetron which was attached on the side of the cavity. After measuring the Q-factor of our assembly, we connected the EMDrive to a commercial 700 W microwave magnetron. After a thermal mapping of the surfaces, we performed thrust measurements with a knife-edge balance as well as with a torsion balance in vacuum chamber. Our measurements reveal thrusts as expected from previous claims after carefully studying thermal and electromagnetic interferences. For the first time, measurements were also performed in high vacuum. Due to a low Q factor of <50, we observed thrusts of +/-20 pN. We identified the magnetic interaction of the power feeding lines going to and from the liquid metal contacts as the most important possible side-effect that is not fully characterized yet. Our test campaign can not confirm or refute the claims of the EMDrive but intends to independently assess possible side-effects in the measurements methods used so far. Nevertheless, we do observe thrusts close to the actual predictions after eliminating many possible error sources that should warrant further investigation into the phenomena.

[–]datums [+1] 1232 points 7 hours ago
People are excited about this for the wrong reason.

It's utility for space travel is much less significant than the fact that we can build a machine that does something, but we can't explain why.

Then someone like Einstein comes along, and comes up with a theory that fits all the weird data.

It's about time for us to peel another layer off of the universe.


[–]Deesing82 [+1] 621 points 6 hours ago
I think Mars in 70 days can't really be called "the wrong reason" for getting excited


[–]PubScrubRedemption [+1] 326 points 5 hours ago
No, it isn't. It's just that idea may just be paled in comparison to the prospects of a creation of man literally defying known physics.


[–]Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow 64 points 5 hours ago
Wouldn't that describe a huge number of inventions?


[–]FaceDeer [+1] 261 points 4 hours ago
Not to the same degree as this thing. It's like someone was working on a new kind of carburator and discovered that his test vehicle was now able to drive through solid matter without disrupting it.

Maybe eventually it'll turn out to be just some quirk of existing laws we hadn't considered before but at this point for all we know it's a machine that tears portals through the Ghost Dimension or whatever. Researchers are currently saying "no friggin' clue how it works yet, we're just tossing science at the wall and are amazed that it's sticking."

That's pretty heady stuff.