Tractor Beam In Development

I love living in the future.

Scientists Are Actively Building a Real-Life Tractor Beam. Seriously.

    • Scientists are working on bringing a tractor beam from science fiction to reality.
    • The researchers are planning to use beams of electrons to create opposite charges and attract object to the beam for manipulation.
    • The goal is to find a safe and effective way to pare down the ever-growing field of space junk orbiting our planet.
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11 thoughts on “Tractor Beam In Development

  1. Space junk? My ass.

    It’ll be weaponized, then stolen from us and the chinese will then start taking down our orbital satellites, blinding us. And say goodbye to gps…

  2. I’d think farmers and truckers would be most interested in a tractor beam.
    #DadJoke

    Seriously, though, while it sounds cool and useful, I also see some pretty radical military and criminal uses for it that could force some radical rethinking of strategy and tactics depending on the details of the implementing technology.

  3. I’m reminded of the Isaac Asimov story “The Dead Past,” in which the brilliant but impractical inventor of a device that can film past events just can’t wait to prove that the Romans were lying about Carthaginian infant sacrifice. The powers that be, however, use it as a device to spy on contemporary people, establishing a totalitarian society.

    When we science nerds think “tractor beam” we picture a spaceship pulling something in without the trouble of having to secure it or leave the ship. We tend to forget that it could also be used to grab a person and impact him into concrete at high speed.

    • The technology here does not work on earth. It requires a lack of atmosphere and isolation from other objects.

        • Used in atmosphere with enough charge differential to cause two objects to move despite gravity, you’re going to break down the insulative effect of the atmosphere and induce a lightning bolt between those objects and….

          Whelp, there it is.

          It won’t work in the atmosphere, as a tractor beam. But as a successor to Iron Dome, we may have something.

          • I don’t believe it can even transfer a charge over much distance in the atmosphere near earth.

          • Joe is right. No matter how fast you accelerate the electrons, after bouncing off a few atoms they’re moving at ordinary speeds in random directions, and seeking ground. An electron beam in atmosphere doesn’t get far before it’s just an electric arc – except that at high enough particle energies, those collisions generate ionizing radiation and the operator needs to be behind lead shielding.

  4. I’ll believe its really arrived when I see ads for a green and yellow “Tractor Beam Generator”.

  5. All it takes is energy. Something we are rapidly running out of since we aren’t allowed to have nuclear energy, oil or other actually useful methods to produce it.

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