"Don't you have to apply KW of electricity to see this effect, as per the original experiments? "
Funny you should say that.
Because that's just about what current Ion thrusters need to generate milliNewton thursts from a big tank of (expensive) Xenon.
Until they run out of course.
IIRC Most people thought Shaylers explanation of how the thruster worked was BS.
However several teams claim to have demonstrated thrust is being generated. And if you don't understand how something works how do you know what it's safe to ignore (or just leave out) in the design? "I left the power transformer out of the amplifier I built but it should work fine anyway." WTF?
The really attractive part of a propellantless thruster is not that it could drive a probe out to Pluto (with a fission power source of some kind).
It could then bring it back afterward.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
