Stranger than fiction - Tractor Beams
This is the place where we will bring you fresh content relating to IT news!
November Issue, day 2, 2011
Scientific literature has, in recent years been spotted with publications examining the possibility of tractor beams. Several ideas have been published but to date none have been examined- until now! Nasa the US space agency has announced it will fund a study of tractor beams. The 63,000 award will be used to look at three separate laser-based approaches. The aim of this research is not to produce a Star Trek like space ship disabling device but to reduce mission risk as stated by Nasa scientist Paul Stysley. If successful the work could be used to continuously and remotely capture particles over an extended period of time. This could then be analysed at any time by ICT support companies using a 24X7 ICT helpdesk. At the moment the current techniques using tractor beam ideas are limited by cost and range. These new models could allow for a trapping system that could reach the upper atmosphere and bring samples to an orbiting spacecraft, as described by Dr Stysley.