Gravity  

A research paper has proposed, with supporting mathematical proof, a device with which to create detectable gravitational fields. Put into working practice the theory would mean scientists could manipulate gravity the same way they do magnetic fields today, which could produce whole new scientific breakthroughs.

Today, researchers study gravitational fields passively. They observe and try to understand existing gravitational fields produced by large inertial masses, such as stars or the Earth, without being able to change them as they can do with magnetic fields, for example.

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This frustration that led André Füzfa, from Namur University in Belgium to attempt a revolutionary approach: creating gravitational fields at will from well-controlled magnetic fields and observing how these magnetic fields could bend space-time.

In his article, Füzfa has proposed, with supporting mathematical proof, a device with which to create detectable gravitational fields. This device is based on superconducting electromagnets and therefore relies on technologies routinely used, for example, at CERN or the ITER reactor.

Although this experiment would require major resources, if conducted, it could be used to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity. If successful, it would certainly be a major step forward in physics: the ability to produce, detect and, ultimately, control gravitational fields. People could then produce gravitational interaction in the same way as the other three fundamental interactions (e.g. electromagnetic and strong and weak nuclear forces).

Füzfa concludes in his paper: "The generation of artificial gravitational fields withelectric currents could be in principle detected through the induced change in space-time geometry that results in a purely classical deflexion of light by magnetic fields. This effect does not invoke any new physics, as it is a consequence of the equivalence principle."

"It could lead to amazing applications like the controlled emission of gravitational waves with large alternative electric currents."

"Would this technology be developed, it could lead to amazing applications like the controlled emission of gravitational waves with large alternative electric currents," states Füzfa.  "Gravity would then cease to be the last of the four fundamental forces not under control by human beings."

This could usher gravitation into a new experimental and industrial era.

Until now, a scientific advance like this was a dream of science fiction, but it could open up many new applications tomorrow, for example in the field of telecommunications with gravitational waves: imagine calling the other side of the world without going through satellite or terrestrial relays.

SOURCE  Numur University

By 33rd Square

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 Space  

The Mars Society’s French chapter, announced recently that it had successfully conducted an artificial gravity test during a parabolic flight.

Association Planète Mars (APM), the Mars Society’s French chapter, announced last week that it had successfully conducted an artificial gravity test during a parabolic flight. According to Richard Heidmann, APM chapter vice president, "We were able to demonstrate an artificial gravity system during a flight of a zero-gravity (zero-g) airplane from Novespace in the skies over Bourdeaux on October 9th."

A journey to Mars based on currently available propulsion technology would take at least nine months and would involve serious threats to passengers from both radiation and weightlessness.  Without appropriate precautions any future Mars mission may deliver very sick explorers if these issues are not resolved.
The experiment had been proposed two years ago by APM to engineering students from Ecole Centrale de Lille. The project was sponsored by APM and CNES, the French space agency, which selected it as part of the framework of its annual student zero-g flight program.

“This zero-g demonstration is a great success for humans-to-Mars planning, our French chapter and the Mars Society as a whole. It's definitely an important step in developing a plausible means of transporting humans to the Red Planet in the near future,” said Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin.

Heidmann presented some of hte technical aspects of the artificial gravity system:

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The project design allowed the use of electric power rather than propellants to deploy the composite. A bearable initial rotation is given to the composite, which is then overstretched under the free action of centrifuge; then, a rather reduced supplemental impulsive rotation is given to the two linked mobiles; and finally an electric motor reduces the length of the tether until the desired g-level is obtained. 

It was too complicated to represent the whole sequence, as we considered not realistic in the frame of this project to equip the mobiles with thrusters and attitude control. But the second part of the scenario, beginning with the start of retraction, seemed achievable. The main difficulty was to design a launching and releasing system which, while giving the good rotational speed, imparts as little as possible perturbations at release. Another problem was the quite reduced space allocated to the experiment in the plane, which put undesirable constraints on the dimensioning (this explains why the mobiles look over-sized with respect to their separation). But, nevertheless, it was still possible to have representative accelerations and to observe the dynamics of the process. 

Releases were performed on 20 parabolas (for a total of 30), with movies captured from several different cameras (including from Novespace and APM) and acceleration measurements recorded aboard one of the mobiles. This data is presently under scrutiny by the students.

The idea of undertaking a small-scale demonstration of an artificial gravity system was originally proposed to the Mars Society by Tom Hill, a member of the organization’s Maryland chapter, under the title of the TEMPO3 mission. It was embraced by the Mars Society in 2008 as the winning entry in its “Mars Project Challenge” contest.  Following work done by a team led by Mr. Hill in 2009, the project was adopted by APM in 2010.

SOURCE  The Mars Society, Top Image - Tim Hornyak/CNET

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