PROPOSAL OF A HANDY SETUP FOR DISCRIMINATING PARASITIC EFFECTS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF IMPULSIVE THRUST FROM A MICROWAVE CAVITY

This paper details the work of the LAPLACE Electromagnetism Research Group to develop an original measuring setup dedicated to the detection of an EMDrive like force. Recent peer-reviewed experimental results [1, 2] were obtained using similar setups based on a torsion pendulum combined with an optical sensor. These very accurate measurement setups are appropriate for measuring such an extremely weak force. They also appear costly, which may discourage other research teams from working on this topic. Our main goal is then to provide an alternative configuration, based on a commercial precision balance, in order to build a measuring setup more affordable, handy, and accurate enough to measure an EMDrive like force. Our experimental system is capable of feeding a truncated cone shaped 2.45 GHz resonant cavity with power up to 140 W. To calibrate the EMDrive force and avoid false positive thrusts, an original setup has been proposed and evaluated. It allows us to really consider that the parasitic effects do not alter the hypothetical force measurement by the use of force direction switching during the measurement.