A "fuel-less" spacecraft engine previously thought to have been theoretically impossible is now seen as the engine that will make travel to the stars not only possible but inevitable.

This revolutionary engine is variously described as the "Em Engine," the "Cannae Drive," a "quantum vacuum plasma thruster" and the "radio frequency resonant cavity thruster engine."

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These descriptions reflect the separate multinational efforts in the U.S., the UK and China that have explored the possibility of building such an engine. These efforts received their biggest boost when NASA recently announced the results of a trial confirming the engine's viability.

Whatever the final name scientists agree upon, what it remarkable about this much talked about engine is that it requires no propellant to generate thrust.

If further tests confirm the feasibility of this technology, the Engine could make spaceflight much cheaper and much faster, and open most of the universe to human exploration, claim supporters of the technology.

After this recent experiment, NASA prepared a report presented at the recent 50th Joint Propulsion Conference in Cleveland that seemed to validate the technology's feasibility.  

"Test results indicate that the RF (radio frequency) resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and, therefore, is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma."

NASA's testing was performed on a low-thrust torsion pendulum capable of detecting force at a single-digit micronewton level, within a stainless steel vacuum chamber with the door closed but at ambient atmospheric pressure.

Several different test configurations were used. These included two different test articles as well as a reversal of the test article orientation.

In addition, the test article was replaced by an RF load to verify that the force was not being generated by effects not associated with the test article. The two test engines were designed by Cannae LLC of Pennsylvania.

Described by some scientists as a major breakthrough in space propulsion, the NASA experiment found that these microwave thrusters require no propellant and might actually work in space. That's a big "if" but results so far have been promising.

What NASA found was that this "microwave thruster system" does generate a small amount of thrust.  It seems to produce propulsion through electricity.

There's no need for propellant since the system will use solar power to produce the microwaves that will propel spacecraft to the stars. This means a voyage to Mars could be made in a few weeks instead of the nine months it takes today.

The thruster somehow harnesses subatomic particles that continuously fade into and out of existence to generate thrust. It seems to exploit an effect called "quantum vacuum fluctuation" in which sub-atomic particles spontaneously create themselves in the vacuum of space before self-destructing.

The Engine seems to capture these sub-atomic particles and turns them into plasma inside the microwave drive. This plasma generates the thrust that can power a spacecraft indefinitely.

It seems to harken back to the claims of a perpetual motion machine that became all the rage in the 19^th century.