I have to admit I was surprised by the headlines touting the funding of tractor beam technologies by NASA.
I've written about this kind of technology before, specifically in the broader context of how tractor beams and energy shields are portrayed in science fiction films like Star Trek. And frankly it's one of the technologies that I also mark in the "things we will probably never have" category.
So did I speak too soon?
Well, yes and no. My contention still holds that producing the kinds of fields necessary to capture, say, an entire spacecraft or asteroid are beyond our technological capability. And there is also the issue of the levels of energy that would be required to produce such fields.
On the other hand, laser-based trapping technology is quickly evolving, allowing researchers to capture and move very small things like atmospheric particles, viruses and even living cells.
So NASA has tasked researchers Paul Stysley, Demetrios Poulios and Barry Coyle to investigate three methods for particle capture that could be used in applications like Mars rovers or planetary probes.
In Phase-1 of the project the team will determine which of the available technologies holds the most promise to NASA applications.
Eventually, a probe, armed with such technology, will be venturing through our solar system, perhaps on course to catch up with a comet, like in the above animation.
It is unlikely that this technology would ever evolve into something like what we see in the Star Trek Universe, but it still has some pretty cool applications.
Video Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Conceptual Image Lab
Comments
Hey John,
“NEVER SAY NEVER!!!” it will come back and bite you on a regular basis;
While I agree that in “Our Life-times” the statistical probability of Tractor Beams, Replicators, and other Futuristic Technologies is probably on the very low side of being developed;
I do think it is a high probability that these may be developed in the next 100 to 200 years; assuming we survive that long as an advanced civilization; as I have said many times in many ways, one only has to look back 100-200 years to where we were, and extrapolate forward, to realize that we are not standing still in our Technological Advancements and Knowledge; it seems to me, that if a man can think it, he generally will try to find a way to do it
Cheers.
Dave
Any technology that does not violate KNOWN laws of physics is theoretically possible.
As we have seen in the past, the KNOWN laws of physics are subject to change–mostly after we catch ourselves violating them. Then we get to say “HMMM, I guess we didn’t KNOW that law of physics as well as we thought.”