The Chinese tests did not include testing in a VACUUM. Not a sealed chamber, but an actual, airless, gasless, box of some sort.
The power levels involved in these devices are 10-20 kW - that much power into anything is capable of heating air and producing currents from convection alone. A microwave cavity is exactly the sort of thing which would make a great make-shift reaction chamber for a very inefficient, very ordinary jet engine of some sort.
I note the Wired article here also makes no mention of whether they tested the device in a vacuum chamber. Its the only test which matters, and no one ever does it, meanwhile they're pumping enough wattage to flash boil water around things.
EDIT: From the NASA abstract as well - "Testing was performed on a low-thrust torsion pendulum that is 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."
Given what this thing claims to do, and how you have to operate it (allegedly) and the scale of the forces involved (tiny), not testing in an actual, evacuated vacuum chamber is absurd.
That much current would also create a magnetic field radiating out from the wiring. Maybe the force is that of the interaction between the earth's magnetic field and the microwave.
Except that they also tested a dummy unit with the resonance chamber futzed, so any gross physical effects from coronal discharge, convection etc, should have shown up on that as well.
I don't believe this means much of anything, other than, "the working unit probably had coronal discharge, and the dummy didn't."
That's certainly a lot easier to believe than the result they got. If, on the other hand, they observed the same sized effect in a decent vacuum, I would be more inclined to believe it. The fact that this test didn't take place in a vacuum, despite already being in a vacuum chamber ought to make people wonder a bit.
Having fed microwaves into vacuum chambers my own self: if the torsion pendulum was already in there, there is absolutely no reason this experiment wasn't run in at least a rough vacuum. I can understand not going to UHV if the cavity things are dirty or have crap which outgasses, but there is no excuse for not running this experiment in a rough vacuum.
If the microwave chamber is sealed air tight, they might need to construct a special one before they can test it in vacuum. But yes, they should get on that!
The power levels involved in these devices are 10-20 kW - that much power into anything is capable of heating air and producing currents from convection alone. A microwave cavity is exactly the sort of thing which would make a great make-shift reaction chamber for a very inefficient, very ordinary jet engine of some sort.
I note the Wired article here also makes no mention of whether they tested the device in a vacuum chamber. Its the only test which matters, and no one ever does it, meanwhile they're pumping enough wattage to flash boil water around things.
EDIT: From the NASA abstract as well - "Testing was performed on a low-thrust torsion pendulum that is 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."
Given what this thing claims to do, and how you have to operate it (allegedly) and the scale of the forces involved (tiny), not testing in an actual, evacuated vacuum chamber is absurd.