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Bessel Beam 'Tractor Beam' Concept Theoretically Demonstrated
cylonlover writes "Last year, NASA revealed it was evaluating three potential 'tractor beam' technologies to deliver planetary or atmospheric particles to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft. At the time, the third of these, which involved the use of a Bessel beam, only existed on paper. Researchers at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have now proven the theory behind the concept, demonstrating how a tractor beam can be realized in the real world – albeit on a very small scale (abstract)."
Bessel Beam 'Tractor Beam' Concept Theoretically Demonstrated
theoretically demonstrated? does not compute... pc load letter... explode!
From the article:
While true Bessel beams are impossible to create, as they would require an infinite amount of energy, ...
This would seem like a good reason not to use them, even in a government project.
Apache guy, Open Source enthusiast, runner
It looks to me that we could use this technology to produce artificial gravity for say, a person. There are some minor limitations -- since the tech only works on very small particles, you'd have to use a very high energy Bessel beam or possibly a conventional laser to completely vaporize the person, and then the Bessel beam would be able to act on them, pulling their individual particles in the direction of the floor.
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1102.5285.pdf