Researchers Working On New Tractor Beam Method

[RA92]

Hey Science, I want my Jetpack. Yeah, remember that deal? You're keeping a lot of people waiting. Hop to it.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/04/25/gryphon-1.jpg

http://www.fahad.com/pics/wing_suit_test.jpg

http://zedomax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/martin-jetpack.jpg

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/realsh/jetman1.jpg

Where have you been?

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

Wow. You're all daft if the only way this excites you is for tractor beams on space ships. Do you realize that perfecting this kind of technology on the micro scale can lead to a breakthrough in nanotechnology? It will allow us to put nanites together.

 

[Stevepinto3]

Hey Science, I want my Jetpack. Yeah, remember that deal? You're keeping a lot of people waiting. Hop to it.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/04/25/gryphon-1.jpg

http://www.fahad.com/pics/wing_suit_test.jpg

http://zedomax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/martin-jetpack.jpg

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/realsh/jetman1.jpg

Where have you been?

Oh yeah, for the top of the line expensive crap you can get that. Where's the economy brand? I should be able to walk into a Walmart and find the "Jetpack" aisle!

 

[Sovereignty]

Man, I was born 100 years too early. My Great Grandkid is gunna get to blast around the solar system in a space shuttle! Oh course he will still have to call home for a Tractor Beam Wrecker when he breaks down in the asteroid belt.

Exactly this. So sad. I should be the one flying around in a shuttle mining rock off moons!

 

[RA92]

Hey Science, I want my Jetpack. Yeah, remember that deal? You're keeping a lot of people waiting. Hop to it.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/04/25/gryphon-1.jpg

http://www.fahad.com/pics/wing_suit_test.jpg

http://zedomax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/martin-jetpack.jpg

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/realsh/jetman1.jpg

Where have you been?

Oh yeah, for the top of the line expensive crap you can get that. Where's the economy brand? I should be able to walk into a Walmart and find the "Jetpack" aisle!

Can't argue with that. Hell, I would rather spend my 200 grands on...

Something with better mileage. Like the goddamned Lamborghini Aventador.

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/upload/25151/images/5LamborghiniAventadorLP700-4picturesGeneva2011.jpg

The Space Elevator is a pipe dream. The initial cost of a sattelite may be more expensive, but the constant maintenance the elevator would need makes it too expensive long term.

If they ever get around to perfecting Carbon Nanotube technology enough to actually be able to build a space elevator....why would it need constant maintenance? Aren't Nanotubes supposed to be ludicrously tough?

You know, I wish someday a game would have a long level where you simply ascend to a space station using a space elevator, trying to survive by shooting off ariel units coming from all sides trying to kill you.

Of course, you might argue they could take the simpler route and destroy the cable...

... except for they cant because it's made of carbon fuckin' nanotubes! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Kohlenstoffnanoroehre_Animation.gif

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

In traditional physics yes, but there was no indication of any kind of force being exerted on the emitter. Could very well be that the emitter may be drawn to to the object, but we would have to wait for a large scale version to be built.

If conservation of momentum doesn't hold true in this case, then an awful lot about our science would have to be wrong. Not impossible, of course, but given that our science is pretty consistent at the moment, it seems unlikely.

Given time, almost all (old) science has been proven wrong. Perhaps in 500 years what we know as science will makes ours seem like what passed for science 500 years ago.

In Sci-Fi, the concept of a tractor beam (as I understand it) is negating the gravitational constant of an object. A magnetic beam works exactly as it sounds, theough why it doesnt rip a target apart as it exerts an opposite amount of force or fries the electronics of a target confounds me.

While the laws of physics are generally agreed to be unbreakable, perhaps they can be bent.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Given time, almost all (old) science has been proven wrong. Perhaps in 500 years what we know as science will makes ours seem like what passed for science 500 years ago.

No, it's been amended somewhat. Instead of saying "The sun travels round the Earth" we say "the sun travels round the Earth from the PoV of an observer on the Earth". Whatever changes you make still have to explain what you can see...the new science still has to have the sun rising in the morning.

Changing the rules for conservation of momentum, while keeping everything that allows our technology to function...I don't see it happening.

In Sci-Fi, the concept of a tractor beam (as I understand it) is negating the gravitational constant of an object.

It does? I thought it was just a "magic grabby thing" of some kind. Negating the gravitational constant...how would that make it move towards you?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

No, it's been amended somewhat. Instead of saying "The sun travels round the Earth" we say "the sun travels round the Earth from the PoV of an observer on the Earth". Whatever changes you make still have to explain what you can see...the new science still has to have the sun rising in the morning.

Technically, the Earth is rising on the horizon of the Sun.

It does? I thought it was just a "magic grabby thing" of some kind. Negating the gravitational constant...how would that make it move towards you?

Depends on the setting, in Star Trek it appears to simply shorten the length of the beam.

 

[Thaluikhain]

No, it's been amended somewhat. Instead of saying "The sun travels round the Earth" we say "the sun travels round the Earth from the PoV of an observer on the Earth". Whatever changes you make still have to explain what you can see...the new science still has to have the sun rising in the morning.

Technically, the Earth is rising on the horizon of the Sun.

Well, yes, but that's due to orbital rotation, not it rotating around its axis.