Steve Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
What goes up must come down. Well, maybe not.
Later this month, NASA researchers hope to conduct an experiment that
could determine if the force of gravity might someday be adjusted, like the
volume of a radio. The space agency says that turning down the gravity in
the immediate vicinity of a rocket would enable future spacecraft to roam
the galaxy by using the tug of distant planets and stars.
Scientists have historically dismissed talk of antigravity machines as
utter nonsense. But at a rare, closed-door conference at NASA's Lewis
Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, scientists representing major
universities, national weapons laboratories, defense contractors and the
corporate research and development community gathered to hear a detailed
account of the space agency's progress in attempting to build a machine that
once seemed beyond the bounds of possibility.
In a surprising departure from its long-standing policy of openness,
NASA did not invite the press to the conference. However, after interviews
with attendees, POPULAR MECHANICS has learned that a group of researchers at
NASA's Marshall Manned Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, has
nearly completed building a device that could make it possible to reduce
gravitational attractions in its immediate vicinity. Part of the reason for
the secrecy is that the very thought of such a machine defies conventional
scientific wisdom.
To understand why, it's helpful to know there are two complementary but
not entirely compatible explanations for gravity. Isaac Newton, the first
physicist, described gravity as an attraction between two masses (see
illustration at top of page). Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity
suggests mass actually causes space-time to warp around it. Imagine, for
instance, the indentation created by placing a bowling ball on a soft bed.
Both theories explain why apples fall from trees. Scientists consider
Einstein's theory superior because it explains also why lightwhich has no
massappears to bend in strong gravitational fields. Light, as the theory
goes, follows the mass-induced curve in space-time (see illustration on
opposite page). Viewing gravity this way makes it more of a feature of the
universe. It is for this reason that scientists consider the idea of an
antigravity device preposterous.
Well, most scientists, anyway. Ron Koczor, a researcher at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, who co-authored a paper on the Huntsville
laboratory's gravity modification device that was presented at the
conference, picks up the story.
"In 1992, Dr. Eugene Podkletnov of Tampere University, Finland,
published the results of his experiment with high-temperature ceramic
superconductors," Koczor says. "He devised an experiment in which a disc of
superconducting material was magnetically levitated and rotated at high
speed, up to several thousand rpm, in the presence of an external magnetic
field. In the course of the tests,
Podkletnov noted that objects above the rotating disk showed a variable
but measurable loss of weight, from less than .5% to about 2%. He had no
explanation," explains Koczor. Podkletnov collected data from his
experiments for nearly four years and compiled it in a paper that was
accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of Physics. But the
paper never appeared. Several days before its scheduled publication in the
fall of 1996, Podkletnov told his story to the London Sunday Telegraph.
Other reporters attempting to confirm the story learned that one of
Podkletnov's co-authors claimed to have never worked on the project.
Podkletnov withdrew his paper and returned to the faculty of the Moscow
Chemistry Science Research Centre. For many journalists, the situation was
beginning to look like the cold fusion debacle. They quickly backed off from
the story.
Not everyone was dissuaded by Podkletnov's refusal to publish his work.
Seven years earlier, Ning Li, a theorist who worked with NASA's Marshall
center, had developed a theory suggesting that a superconductor rotated in a
strong magnetic field could disrupt the gravitational force in its immediate
vicinity. Three of her papers were subsequently published by major
scientific journals. Currently a senior scientist on the research faculty of
the University of Alabama in Huntsville, she has been helping to build the
superconducting disc for the Marshall antigravity device for the past year.
Whitt Brantley, the NASA-designated spokesman for the experiment who
also is a member of the antigravity project, says the space agency's
scientists decided last year to try to duplicate Podkletnov's machine by
looking over his earlier research and exchanging information with him by
telephone and e-mail. "Each time we contact him there seems to be more
detail. It's sort of like chasing something," says Brantley.
The theory of general relativity envisions gravity as a deformation of
space-time that is somehow created by mass.
NASA isn't sure its antigravity machine, which is 90% complete, will
work. At the moment, the biggest problem is building the fragile
superconducting disc, which is, in fact, made of two discs, explains
Brantley. One is made of metal that can be levitated in a magnetic field. On
top of it is a composite made of superconducting materials. This assembly is
housed in a 20-in.-dia. column that stands about 4 ft. tall. At the start of
the experiment, it will be filled with liquid helium or nitrogen, which
cools the apparatus to minus-400F. Only then is the disc set into motion.
If the machine performs as Podkletnov claims, delicate instruments will
show a diminution of gravity's tug. Brantley says researchers originally saw
a slight gravity shielding effect when they placed instrumentation above a
smaller, stationary disc. It turned out to be the result of the magnetic
field. Adding ordinary 1/2-in. iron plates removed this anomaly. Some
critics contend that if Podkletnov had taken a similar precaution, the
effects that he observed would have likewise disappeared.
Most physicists believe that when NASA flips the switch on its gravity
modification experiment, absolutely nothing will happen. Then again, it
could start the countdown to a bold new era in space exploration.
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As big bird spreads the word, anybody with a heart votes love.
- Fluke.
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