UFO Laser Propulsion System?

ATS Team:

Here's a brief video that I found quite interesting.

There ideas expounded therein pertain to a mooted radical new means of propulsion.

During the brief demo "flights" it becomes apparent the object resembles a "flashing UFO".

Subsequent to viewing this video, one might ask.....

Will we be able to make practical use of this technology?

Could this have anything to do with "UFO" propulsion systems?



Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

Hi MMN i actually saw this on some programme here in the UK around 6 or 7 years ago and heard nothing since ! I believe they were actually developing it as part of some project/competition sponsored by NASA to find alternative propulsion systems and on the tv show i watched it showed other projects not just this one ! Its that long ago now i can't recall the others but this one always stuck in my mind and had wondered for ages what became of it ! Thanks for posting was nice to watch it again ! Perhaps it will be developed further ? I hope so ! Cheers

This is one of the videos I saw for the first time, right here on this website. It was very impressive, but I got to wondering if the methods used could ever be modified to provide continuous power to a craft. Seems like an awful lot of hardware to launch such a tiny object but a few feet into the air... to no particular result I might add.

MMN
great post
S&F buddy

Maybe we can finally get some use
out of some of that Star Wars budget.

Of course, it's nowhere near being ready
for production at the present time.

Originally posted by TrueBrit
This is one of the videos I saw for the first time, right here on this website. It was very impressive, but I got to wondering if the methods used could ever be modified to provide continuous power to a craft. Seems like an awful lot of hardware to launch such a tiny object but a few feet into the air... to no particular result I might add.

I think you would get a whole different outcome
of continuous propulsion if you attached the laser
to the bottom of the craft. This was just a model
to show you could get lift from a laser.

The real kicker is to see if the physics would still
work outside of our atmosphere, say in space.



[edit on 6-8-2010 by boondock-saint]

I too saw that docu many years ago and if i remember correctly it was something to do with nasa holding a competition to find the best propulsion for the space elevator. I remember the one main thing was that it had to have NO onboard power system and could only be proppeled by something on earth.
Although i could be wrong. I can see where you get the idea of it being ufo shaped but im no expert but i havnt heard of ufo's spinning this fast, although the flashes of laser are eerily similar to a lot of ufos. Who knows eh?

reply to post by ProRipp


ProRipp.....

I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

I really admire these scientists who don't mind getting a bit "out there"!

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by TrueBrit


TrueBrit.....

Apart from the fact it took a multi multi million dollar military laser to make a 6 inch wide obect fly 40 feet after years of research, it's completely practical!

Cheers
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by ProRipp


I think i saw the same program too ProRipp.

One thing that confuses me about it though, is why use compressed air to spin the 'craft' for stability, why not either spin the laser beams, which would cause the ionized air to exit 'the engine' in a spinning vortex, or engineer exhaust ports or ionized air directors on the craft itself, which would have the same effect?

The rotation, and the stability would be constant then.

"The physics of high-power beamed energy propagation through the atmosphere...there's not a lot of expertise out there to make this stuff real. It's completely out of the conventional box," Myrabo said. "I've been working on it for 30 years. I know how to do it."

For decades, Myrabo said, what laser propulsion physicists have been hungry to achieve is a couple of dollars per watt of laser energy. "We're here now. It's a matter of will and do we want to do it. This technology is now at the cusp of commercial reality." - www.space.com...

It seems that this technology is on the cusp of commercialisation, although I have heard passionate scientists say that many, many times before, usually looking for a new grant or, in this case, the scientist has a new book out.

There have been considerable advancements in this field it seems and the similarities these 'craft' have to UFO sightings is apparent. Interesting stuff

Originally posted by boondock-saint
MMN
great post
S&F buddy
Maybe we can finally get some use
out of some of that Star Wars budget.
Of course, it's nowhere near being ready
for production at the present time.

Boondock-saint.....

Some interesting non-military things came out of that "Star Wars" project.

For instance, I am involved in a very advanced medical imaging technology project based on the application of one of their free electron lasers within a new type of imaging system.

So.....I think it's a "positive" that beneficial non-military use has been made of such technology.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by boondock-saint


Boondock-saint.....

The real kicker is to see if the physics would still work outside of our atmosphere, say in space.

Based on what was stated in the video, I can't see how it would work in space......no thrust can be produced with the ignition of oxygen.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not


What if the craft took an air supply with it?

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not
Very interesting video. Who would imagine the interior of White Sands would look like that? Although the date isn't on the video, I feel sure I saw it maybe ten years ago. The future of lasers appears like a short one until they can come to terms with the size and energy they require. As I'm not a physicist, that might be the cue to go and invest in shares in Sandia Labs.

When we were kids, it was all about death rays and light sabres. We're a long way from those things coming true in any practical sense. The recent footage in England that showed a stealth drone being targeted by a huge laser shows how far we've come...

Originally posted by spikey
reply to post by Maybe...maybe not

 

What if the craft took an air supply with it?

Spikey.....

I guess.....maybe.....

I wonder how much oxygen it would take to produce sufficient thrust in space to be useful?

Perhaps that would determine how much "propellant" you would need to take into space, which in turn would determine the practicallity or lack thereof, of such an idea.

I wonder if oxygen would be the best gas to use for that purpose?

What about the size of the laser?

Some lasers are almost 1 mile long.....which would hardly be practical!

What about the power source for the laser?

Perhaps a new technology such as "laser wakefield".....

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/934c0809296b.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1182e1bf362e.jpg[/atsimg]

en.wikipedia.org...

.....could be of some use.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not


[edit on 6-8-2010 by Maybe...maybe not]

reply to post by Kandinsky


With regards to the light sabre idea , scientists have managed to bend light now, so the idea of a limited range looping lazer beam is not so outlandish as it might have appeared two years ago. Admittedly still a ways off , but closer, ever closer.

reply to post by TrueBrit
I'd probably lose fingers anyway...slicing bread for toast after the pub. Best toy in the world!

Very plausible, after seeing it actually propel itself upward, I believe in it's ability to go commercial. I bet some agency has taken this design to great heights by now. I saw a reply that stated they were not aware of any new info on the project in 6 years!

Beaming the energy to it from space is quite puzzling to me. If they figure that out, the directional propulsion made pretty good sense to me.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Better than that, you toast the bread while you cut it, you melt the cheese while cutting it. Thirty second cheese on toast... I want a light sabre even more now!! And of course some hard core gloves lol.

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not

I wonder if oxygen would be the best gas to use for that purpose?

Hmm..i wonder that too. The may be a method to make use of CO2 instead.

Yeah, i agree about it being impractical with mile long lasers! A better method may be a space lift/elevator type tether...and have the laser ground based and have the craft ascend attached to the tether.

Then again, if we had a tether anchored to an orbiting platform, we wouldn't need to use lasers really.

Unless a laser can be designed like a circular or spiral accelerator, then it could be coiled up, and go with the craft with emitters around the base (?). But as you say, what would power it? Nuclear i suppose.