Beam me up Scotty?

When will tractor beams be in operation and for what purpose?

NASA are looking into the prospect of such a devise according to the BBC News Science and Environment page;-

www.bbc.co.uk...

from which the following quote was taken.

"Nasa scientist Paul Stysley says the approach could "enhance science goals and reduce mission risk"."

Incredible, almost everything from science-fiction can be realised as our knowledge expand. no more science fiction movies, that's science movies

tractor beams... not teleportation then.
oh well tractor beams would be cool too but i doubt it would be cost effective, not much going on in space for us at the moment to really need tracto beams so i think money should be used to make it cheaper and safer to get to space.
no point having the tools to operate up there if we can barely get past our own orbit.

reply to post by dowot


Not to be nit picking...but "beaming up" does not refer to using a tractor beam. You would be better off quoting Star Wars instead of Star Trek....maybe the line "I hope that old man got that tractor beam out of commission, or this is gunna be a real short trip."

OK, I'm going back to the basement of the science building now...

Here is some info on teleportation
news.discovery.com...
www.pcworld.com...
www.sciencedaily.com...

Now come on replicator!

Peace,
spec

This is weird.
Yesterday I was just thinking, "I wonder how long it will be before tractor beams are invented?"
Now I'm thinking "How long until I win the lottery?"

A transporter would open up space like nothing else.

The first ships would have to be made on earth then flown into space but soon after they could start building ships on the moon and transport everything else up by transporter.

This would cut the cost of spaceflight to almost nothing compared to now.

You could build whole fleets of space craft on the moon and after a few missions could get fuel from icy moons of Saturn or Jupiter and other metals from the asteroid belt.(nickel and iron)

You could also put up power satellites with no problems just by beaming up the components for a assembly ship to put together.

Yes a transporter would be the best thing to have short of a warp drive.

reply to post by ANNED


i say we need a space elevator and armoured hull for our spaceships, then some habitable bases on the moon and mars with enough room for about 1000 people per moon/mars base. the we need to get mining on these rocks done and haul it back to earth. once this is succesful for a decade or two, get some factories up there, more habiation and maybe a few more space elevators.
we need an economicaly viable space program, less scientists and more labourers.

reply to post by listerofsmeg


I agree. Let's get teleportation beams, tractor beams, move part of our human population on to grand space stations, moons, and other habital planets...

But before anything like that gets done we must get rid of the almighty dollar and all other currencies, reform the education system, and make society one that isnt protrayed by the puppet master in the television.

Otherwise we have the green light

The trouble with there being an article on this , is that as yet, there is NO story here. There has been no test of a system capable of lifting anything bigger than the very smallest possible sample size. That interests me not one iota.

Tractors , if invented ought to be used the same way as in the movies and television...so , what I am saying is, there will be a story WHEN we can move one space craft using anothers tractor tech, and until then all that there will be , is a collection of scientists who have not arrived at the end of thier journey of invention.

As great as it is that people are saying that tractor beams may become reality is, its nothing new to science, and its nothing new to anyone who cares about it. What we need now is finished tech ,that can do the jobs we want doing.

We need actual FTL, tractor beams that can yank damaged/defunct satelites into repair bays and fix them, rather than allowing them to plummet into the atmosphere and ethier burn up, or smash into a planet. We need space scientists to actualy APPLY the advances made in electromagnetic shielding for extra atmospheric craft over the last few years.

What we do not need, is over hyped mini steps toward something that we should have had in our technological arsenal for five years by now.

Originally posted by listerofsmeg
tractor beams... not teleportation then.
oh well tractor beams would be cool too but i doubt it would be cost effective, not much going on in space for us at the moment to really need tracto beams so i think money should be used to make it cheaper and safer to get to space.
no point having the tools to operate up there if we can barely get past our own orbit.

edit on 1/11/2011 by listerofsmeg because: (no reason given)

Spoken like someone that did not bother to read the article. The tractor beam is to be used on missions we can CURRENTLY achieve, some of the designs actually only work on a planet with an atmosphere. Deny Ignorance.

reply to post by OccamsRazor04


no i read it but as we can already pick up useless little rocks without this 'tractor beam' i think research and funding should be focused on more useful ideas.
Deny the urge to attack opinions.

A Star Trek tractor beam?! So what was that green beam used by the Metaluna Cruiser to capture a small airplane from the sky, in the "This Island Earth" movie 11 years before there was any Star Trek? Please...

The thread title should be: "Beam Me Up... Exeter"