SETI bioastro: Fw: Wired News :'Lifters': An Idea in the Clouds

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From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Wed May 15 2002 - 07:32:50 PDT

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>From Wired News, available online at:

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,52432,00.html

'Lifters': An Idea in the Clouds
By Michelle Delio

2:00 a.m. May 11, 2002 PDT

Antigravitational devices developed by a computer geek could
eventually change the world as we know it.

Or they may just blow a few holes into some barn roofs.

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The devices are known as "lifters." When charged with a small amount
of electrical power, they levitate, apparently able to resist Earth's gravitational forces.

Currently, the devices can only levitate themselves. But developer Tim
Ventura and others are working to convert electrical current into a force that can lift and move planes, trains and rocket ships. If that proves possible, the technology that powers lifters could extend the ability to explore space and drastically cut the use of fossil fuels on Earth.

But skepticism from mainstream researchers who wonder why lifter
developers don't submit their devices for independent testing -- coupled with the strange tales that are told within the lifter development community -- have tainted the devices' reputation in scientific circles.

Lifter developers and conventional scientists do agree on one issue:
Oddball theories about how the universe works are worth investigating.

Scientists at NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project are
researching theories that at first glance would seem to be hanging even further off the bleeding edge of rationality than the lifter. Current projects include possible methods of manipulating space-time -- that's time travel in lay terms.

"All major scientific breakthroughs were scoffed at when they first
debuted," Marc Millis, a researcher at the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project, said. "To move forward, a scientist has to explore the seemingly impossible."

Lifter technology hasn't yet been proved "possible" for anything more
than hobbyist use. But developers said they are getting closer every day.

Ventura, a UNIX programmer for AT&T Wireless, builds lifters in his
spare time. He constructs the devices with balsa wood, aluminum foil and 30-gauge magnet wire.

Ventura's lifters are triangle-shaped frames that at first glance look
like a craft project created by an artistically challenged individual.

But when connected to a power source, a lifter suddenly shoots skyward
to the extent that its earthbound tethers permit, and then hovers about in the air.

Ventura uses an old Compaq computer display to power his lifters. Two
wires come off the lifter, a positive power lead connected (PDF) via a high-voltage tap to the monitor's picture tube, which redirects electricity from the picture tube to the lifter, and a ground wire, also connected to the monitor.

Lifters seemingly do levitate and hover without standard propellants,
but the problem is that no one is quite sure why.

Some developers believe that electricity stimulates the electrons on
the lifter's surface, providing propulsion. Other theories such as ion-wind currents or electromagnetic disturbance of the air around the lifter have also been proposed, but there has been little scientific testing.

"At least four different groups are pursuing (lifter technology) that
I know of. None of these groups has yet published peer-reviewed rigorous literature on their observations or methods," NASA's Millis said. "Lifter creators' lack of interest in standard scientific procedure is tainting this topic and impeding progress toward a reliable resolution of the remaining unknowns."

Millis was cheered by Congress' recent decision to earmark funds for a
scientific study of lifter technology, which will be conducted by the Institute of Software Research this summer.

Ventura said he has considered submitting his work for scientific
review, but it isn't "on the top of my to-do list." But he said he may soon be working with the Plasma Physicists project at Princeton University.

"I would welcome any real outcome to this research," Millis said.
"Proof that lifters do or do not work would be equally valuable. Right now, all we have is what amounts to folk tales."

Ventura readily admits that lifter developers do tell some strange
tales.

One story is that the idea for lifters came from pieces of UFO
wreckage taken from the Roswell site. A parcel of purported crash parts was sent by an unknown person to radio talk show host Art Bell in 1996.

Bell sent them to a government researcher, whose investigations
reportedly indicated that when electrical voltage was applied to the parts, they would move and in some cases levitate in much the same way as lifters do.

So some lifter developers believe that their devices are modeled after
UFOs.

"As an inventor, I couldn't care less whether or not the idea for the
technology came from a crashed UFO," Ventura said. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not what you would call a 'believer' anyway."

Ventura has tinkered with another lifter legend: the "Gravity
Capacitor."

Said by some to be the true parent of current lifter technology, the
Capacitor is rumored to have been developed accidentally by a 17-year-old trying to build a variation of "Fitzeau's Condenser" (a type of energy storage device) in the 1930s, and instead stumbled upon a method for controlling gravity with electricity.

When the boy connected his tinfoil and waxed-paper device to the
ignition coil of a Ford Model T, the Capacitor immediately levitated at such a tremendous speed that it left behind only a smoking exit hole in the roof of the barn.

Ventura wryly notes that the capacitor's self-destructive nature makes
it a less-than-ideal test apparatus for investigating gravitational forces.

"Six hours of cutting foil strips and waxed paper is a lot of work for
three seconds of smoke."