Would it be better if NASA wouldn't have less then 10 people, out of their 18,000 employees (0.05%), working on testing nevertheless such claims which almost surely don't work?
Maybe, if that 0.05% is used against NASA by claiming it doesn't do its job how it should.
It's my understanding that they are working with this project on their free time.
NASA pays small amount of money ($50,000 or so) and gives them a room to do experiments. Or at least did in 2011. Eagleworks and their team are not official NASA research. They just have facebook page. Contact attempts trough NASA don't work.
Glenn Research Center offered to replicate the experiment in a hard vacuum if Eagleworks manages to reach 100 µN of thrust.
