NASA would like to have a "Tractor Beam". The problem is that no one has of yet ever built a tractor beam or even agreed on what constitutes a tractor beam. However a team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md have been experimenting with laser light to pick up and move particles into testing instrumentation which in the future might be mounted on spacecraft or rovers. The lasers would be much like a vacuum cleaner, focusing and transporting small particles to awaiting sensors. Initially it was thought that this tech would be used to clean up orbital debris, however the lasers are no where near powerful enough to move anything greater than near sub microscopic particles. In the film below, NASA demonstrates how they feel the system might operate in the future.
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2 comments:
Until the technology is a reality, NASA will have to gut it out with a Dyson........
Wow! Do you know how long it has been since I heard someone mention a Dyson. Cool. If we went as far out as Mars orbit I would hazard a guess that it would supply everything we need in power, air, light and water. But I don't think the planets alone would supply enough mass, Ort would have to go and most likely further out....
Great call Anon! Thanks
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