Let's take a step back and think of the implications about this news.
I remember when our contractors started using lasers instead of string lines at construction sites. There were some oldies that were absolutely against the idea of setting up string lines like they've been doing forever. I swear, one time an old timer asked "how do we know the laser is straight?" Sure, there were set-backs at first, but once the crews got used to the lasers, they proved to be a well worth investment. The crew no longer had to spend several hours stringing up the whole site.
Then there was Guttenberg and his printing press. When I was assembling my stamp pad letters for my current project so I could simply stamp my approvals of the proposals from the project managers, it occurred to me. See, it took me 40 minutes to assemble the letters. But once I was done, that was it. I've been using that stamp for almost a year. Can you imagine old timers from Guttenberg's time dissing his printing press saying why not just sit down and write out the paper rather than spending hours assembling the letters? Well, if they were just doing 1 page, then a person with a pen could easily beat the printing press. But doing 100 or 1000 copies, then it's a different story.
Or how about the steam engine or the coal engine versus the horse drawn carriage? The first race between a train and a horse was a disaster for the train. After that, most people dismissed the train as nothing but a toy and that nothing would ever replace the horse.
In all those cases, it took ingenuity, patience, and open-mindedness to take a leap forward.
That said, I'm some what disappointed at the reactions of the people who have posted responses in this thread. You're getting too hung up on how much force is exerted by this prototype. It's exactly like concentrating on how long the Wright brothers' plane was in the air and then dismiss it. Of course the engine didn't exert that much force. It's a prototype.
Can't people see the implication of this technology for future space travel? Or are we too short-minded to just focus on how bad the prototype is and dismiss this technology overall?
I for one think the this is straight from star trek. Just like how descendants of the steam engine had evolved into cars, trucks, tanks, airplanes, etc., distant descendants of this new technology will probably allow us to do long term space travels. Then our descendants will look back at us and see just how short-minded we were for not seeing the potential in something like this. You know, the same way we look at how our ancestors dismissed the various technologies in the past.