CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Artificial gravity on spaceships and rockets levitating themselves into orbit will remain the stuff of science fiction for some time to come, despite recent reports in Europe that researchers with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing are working on the concept.

According to a report by Nick Cook of Jane's Defense World (JDW) -- published this week in Europe -- Boeing Phantom Works scientists admitted they were working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could change the way humanity moves around the planet.

Jane's quoted from a Boeing document entitled "Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion" (GRASP) it had obtained that said "If gravity modification is real, it will alter the entire aerospace business."

The document also said, according to the report, that Boeing was actively seeking out the collaboration of Evgeny Podkletnov, a Russian scientist well known among gravity researchers who has experimented with the technology in Russia and Finland.

Almost true, Boeing told SPACE.com Wednesday in a prepared statement.

"We are aware of Podkletnov's work on 'anti-gravity' devices and would be interested in seeing further development work being done. However, Boeing is not funding any activities in this area at this time," the statement said.

"The recent report that we are is based on a misinterpretation of information. For instance, GRASP is not a codename for a current project but rather an acronym for a presentation entitled "Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion," in which a Boeing engineer explains Podkletnov's theory and proposes that we should continue to monitor this work and perhaps even conduct some low-cost experiments to further assess its plausibility. No steps have been taken beyond this point by Boeing."

According to Cook's report, the GRASP document made these observations about Podkletnov's work:

• An anti-gravity beam four inches (10 centimeters) wide has been demonstrated in Russia, successfully repelling objects more than a half-mile (1 kilometer) away with negligible power loss.
• Such technology could be engineered into a new weapons system capable of vaporizing objects.
• Objects placed over a rapidly spinning disc of superconducting material lost up to 2 percent of its weight, a feat NASA was unable to replicate during the 1990s but plans to try again soon using hardware built to Podkletnov’s specifications.

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Nick Cook, JDW Aerospace Consultant, London - Jane's Defense Weekly

original source  | fair use notice

Summary: Boeing, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, has admitted it is working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could overturn a century of conventional aerospace propulsion technology if the science underpinning them can be engineered into hardware.

The Boeing drive to develop a collaborative relationship with the scientist in question, Dr Evgeny Podkletnov, has its own internal project name: ‘GRASP’ — Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion. 

A GRASP briefing document obtained by JDW sets out what Boeing believes to be at stake. "If gravity modification is real," it says, "it will alter the entire aerospace business." 

GRASP’s objective is to explore propellentless propulsion (the aerospace world’s more formal term for anti-gravity), determine the validity of Podkletnov’s work and "examine possible uses for such a technology". Applications, the company says, could include space launch systems, artificial gravity on spacecraft, aircraft propulsion and ‘fuelless’ electricity generation — so-called ‘free energy’. 

But it is also apparent that Podkletnov’s work could be engineered into a radical new weapon. The GRASP paper focuses on Podkletnov’s claims that his high-power experiments, using a device called an ‘impulse gravity generator’, are capable of producing a beam of ‘gravity-like’ energy that can exert an instantaneous force of 1,000g on any object — enough, in principle, to vaporise it, especially if the object is moving at high speed. 

Podkletnov maintains that a laboratory installation in Russia has already demonstrated the 4in (10cm) wide beam’s ability to repel objects a kilometre away and that it exhibits negligible power loss at distances of up to 200km. Such a device, observers say, could be adapted for use as an anti-satellite weapon or a ballistic missile shield. Podkletnov declared that any object placed above his rapidly spinning superconducting apparatus lost up to 2% of its weight. 

Although he was vilified by traditionalists who claimed that gravity-shielding was impossible under the known laws of physics, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) attempted to replicate his work in the mid-1990s. Because NASA lacked Podkletnov’s unique formula for the work, the attempt failed. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will shortly conduct a second set of experiments using apparatus built to Podkletnov’s specifications. 

Boeing recently approached Podkletnov directly, but promptly fell foul of Russian technology transfer controls (Moscow wants to stem the exodus of Russian high technology to the West). 

The GRASP briefing document reveals that BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin have also contacted Podkletnov "and have some activity in this area". 

It is also possible, Boeing admits, that "classified activities in gravity modification may exist". The paper points out that Podkletnov is strongly anti-military and will only provide assistance if the research is carried out in the ‘white world’ of open development. 

BBC News Article
Monday, 29 July, 2002, 03:23 GMT 04:23 UK

Researchers at the world's largest aircraft maker, Boeing, are using the work of a controversial Russian scientist to try to create a device that will defy gravity.

The company is examining an experiment by Yevgeny Podkletnov, who claims to have developed a device which can shield objects from the Earth's pull.

1. Solenoids create magnetic field 
2. Spinning, super-conducting ceramic ring 
3. Liquid Nitrogen acts as coolant
4. Dr Podkletnov claims weight can be reduced by 2% (1kg=980g) 

Q&A: What chance floating jumbos?

Dr Podkletnov is viewed with suspicion by many conventional scientists. They have not been able to reproduce his results.

The project is being run by the top-secret Phantom Works in Seattle, the part of the company which handles Boeing's most sensitive programmes.

The head of the Phantom Works, George Muellner, told the security analysis journal Jane's Defence Weekly that the science appeared to be valid and plausible.

Dr Podkletnov claims to have countered the effects of gravity in an experiment at the Tampere University of Technology in Finland in 1992.

The scientist says he found that objects above a superconducting ceramic disc rotating over powerful electromagnets lost weight.

The reduction in gravity was small, about 2%, but the implications - for example, in terms of cutting the energy needed for a plane to fly - were immense.

Scientists who investigated Dr Podkletnov's work, however, said the experiment was fundamentally flawed and that negating gravity was impossible.

Research explored

But documents obtained by Jane's Defence Weekly and seen by the BBC show that Boeing is taking Dr Podkletnov's research seriously.

The hypothesis is being tested in a programme codenamed Project Grasp.

Boeing is the latest in a series of high-profile institutions trying to replicate Dr Podkletnov's experiment.

The military wing of the UK hi-tech group BAE Systems is working on an anti-gravity programme, dubbed Project Greenglow.

The US space agency, Nasa, is also attempting to reproduce Dr Podkletnov's findings, but a preliminary report indicates the effect does not exist.

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