Next Generation Space Technologies:  A new "fuel-less" quantum thruster technology may be the next advance to join the current stable[1] of extreme technologies being commercialised for space exploration.

It appears that microwave thrusters, or QVPT (Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thrusters) may indeed generate force / energy by harvesting quantum effects at macro scale.  If true, this would be a remarkable advance in the possibility for deep space travel without the requirement to carry fuel. [2]

From the article:

"The central insight ... is that something called quantum vacuum fluctuations will occasionally spontaneously create particles all throughout the vacuum of space.  The thruster essentially turns these virtual particles into a plasma and expels them out the back of the ship, much like a conventional fuel source. The quantum fuel, though, spontaneously appears inside the thruster’s reaction area without even the need for collection or injection hardware.

[So, while the] thruster actually does use fuel — it just finds and uses that fuel as it goes."


Notes:

[1]  Current extreme technologies include the solar wind, gravitational sling-shots, and space elevators.

[2] Escaping the gravity well of a planet would still be beyond the capability of QVPT, effectively limiting the application to inter-planetary docking stations.  A shuttle with conventional thrust technology would presumably still be required to go from planet surface to docking station.

[3] The original controversial design, EmDrive (Electromagnetic Drive) is due to aerospace engineer Roger Shawyer and his company Satellite Propulsion Research (SPR) Ltd, a small UK based company.

[4] Despite the many detractors and critiques, there now appear to be two independent experimental validations, one at NASA Eagleworks and one at Northwestern Polytechnic University in China.  Further tests are scheduled at Jet Propulsion Labs, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, and NASA's Glenn Research Centre.

Additional reading:

Satellite Propulation Research (SPR):  http://emdrive.com/

SPR explanation of the technology:  http://emdrive.com/faq.html

Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive

Solar Sail: http://news.discovery.com/space/are-solar-sails-the-future-of-space-travel.htm

Space Tethers (from Seattle based company Tethers Unlimited): http://www.tethers.com/tethersgeneral.html

Space Elevators: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/176625-60000-miles-up-geostationary-space-elevator-could-be-built-by-2035-says-new-study