Not impossible if it worked

Brandon Russell has another article at TechnoBuffalo about an impossibility that wasn't:

People have been flipping their lids over a supposed “impossible engine” design, or EmDrive. Invented by British scientist Roger Shawyer, the engine is supposedly capable of generating thrust without any sort of propellant. Two independent tests have already confirmed different models work, and folks in the scientific community are cautiously becoming hopeful this technology could change space travel forever. The problem is, it goes against a law of physics known as conservation of momentum, which states that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction.
The engine works by “bouncing microwaves around in a closed container”; these microwaves are generated using electricity provided by solar energy. The method, in theory, means that the impossible engine can go on forever unless there’s some sort of hardware failure. Current technology relies on fuel as a propellant, but spacecraft are only capable of carrying so much of it at any given time. NASA has ideas on how to get around this, but this newest engine would obviously negate any so-called galactic gas stations.
Nobody has been able to fully explain why the engine works; it just does. First a group of Chinese researchers successfully demonstrated Shawyer’s EmDrive design, which was followed up by a NASA scientist named Guido Fetta, who showed that his own propellant-less engine was capable of generating thrust between thirty and fifty micronewtons, which is about 0.00003 to 0.00005-percent of you pressing the home button on your smartphone, the Independent said; the Chinese researchers, meanwhile, claim they were about to produce 720 millinewton.
NASA is currently presenting the results as objectively as possible, though there are still many skeptics. Via Jalopnik, physicist Stephen Granade said the impossible engine is likely just that: impossible. He equated it to trying to make your car go faster by pushing down on your steering wheel; it isn’t going to happen. You can check out his full explanation there, which talks about the Cannae drive NASA tested, along with the EmDrive dreamed up by Shawyer.
While the separate tests confirm such an engine might be possible, they could be wrong. Still, the mere thought of something that was once considering impossible is now possible should get a lot of people excited. Imagine traveling to a distant planet using this impossible design. It could open up some very real possibilities for humans to one day travel much father than we ever thought possible.

Jesus Diaz has the same info at Gizmodo:

Until yesterday, every physicist was laughing at this engine and its inventor, Roger Shawyer. It's called the EmDrive, and everyone said it was impossible because it goes against classical mechanics. But the fact is that the quantum vacuum plasma thruster works and scientists can't explain why.
Shawyer's engine is extremely light and simple. It provides a thrust by "bouncing microwaves around in a closed container". The microwaves are generated using electricity that can be provided by solar energy. No propellant is necessary, which means that this thrusters can work forever unless a hardware failure occurs. If real, this would be a major breakthrough in space propulsion technology.
Obviously, the entire thing sounded preposterous to everyone. In theory, this thing shouldn't work at all. So people laughed and laughed and ignored him. Everyone except a team of Chinese scientists. They built one in 2009 and it worked: they claimed they were able to produce 720 millinewton, which is reportedly enough to build a satellite thruster. And, still, nobody else believed it.
Now American scientist Guido Fetta and a team at NASA Eagleworks— the advanced propulsion skunkworks led by Dr. Harold "Sonny" White at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas— have published a new paper that demonstrates that a similar engine working on the same principles does indeed produce thrust. Their model, however, produces much less thrust—just thirty to fifty micronewtons. But it works, which is amazing on its own. They haven't explained why their engine works, but it does work:

Test results indicate that the RF 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.

The entire idea that we have found something that seems to go against the the principle of conservation of momentum just seems crazy to me. But the fact that it has worked for two independent parties can't be denied. That's the laboratory speaking. Then again, perhaps both labs made a mistake. I'm sure this will be tested by the Russians and the Europeans too, but at least I'm glad we are working on it.
But the fact that we may be witnessing something completely new, something that may push us forward into sci-fi territory once again, is very exciting. 

Rico says you'll never get rich betting against technology...