NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer image of the blast wave moving through interstellar
This images as observed by the NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), released on March 14, 2012, shows the central bright cloud of dust which is the blast wave moving through interstellar space heating up dust as it goes. The blast wave travels fast -- at an average speed of about 11,000 miles per second (18,000 kilometers per second). By the time WISE took this image, the blast wave has expanded out to about a distance of 21 light-years from the original explosion. The flash of light from the explosion, traveling at the speed of light, has covered well over 300 light-years. The orange-colored echoes further out from the central remnant are from interstellar dust that was heated by the supernova flash centuries after the original explosion. The colors used in this image represent specific wavelengths of infrared light. Blue and cyan (blue-green) represent light emitted predominantly from stars at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.6 microns. Green and red represent light mostly emitted by dust at 12 and 22 microns, respectively.

Any technology that can drastically reduce the travel time between planets in space is a welcome step and scientists at NASA's Eagleworks Laboratories might be heading towards this direction as a paper they wrote on the controversial EmDrive technology has passed the peer review. The review is likely to be published in AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power, by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

This shows the confidence among scientists to achieve the possible results, noted IBTimes UK.

The paper has been titled as "Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio Frequency Cavity in Vacuum."

Paul March, an engineer with NASA's Eagleworks Laboratories, had suggested on the NASA Spaceflight forum that "Past that I can't say more other than to listen to Dr. Rodal on this topic, and please have patience about when our next EW paper is going to be published. Peer reviews are glacially slow..."

Dr. Jose Rodal is an independent scientist who had confirmed that the paper had cleared the peer scrutiny (post has been since deleted).

The EmDrive technology was the invention of British scientist Roger Shawyer and was proposed in 1999. Being based on the theory of special relativity, it notes that the thrust is generated by converting electricity into microwaves and fired in closed conical devices. This caused more force to be exerted on the flat end of the cone by microwave particles.

This would mean that there would be no requirement of propellant for its engines, and microwaves could be powered by solar energy. This can also mean there could be a smaller and lighter spacecraft that would not need to carry any fuel. The move might help humans to perhaps travel to interstellar space in lesser time.

But the technology has its naysayers as it challenges the fundamentals of our current scientific understanding of how things work. EmDrive defies the law of conservation of momentum that says objects do not move unless force is applied from outside.

We might have to wait for the review to be published to see if it answers some of the questions that critics have posed.