Did they? I could have sworn they took their inspiration from Tampere, Finland!
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This looks like it could be a Nobel Prize in the making, if the results turn out to be valid.
Perhaps -- but I don't think these guys would be the claimants!
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Somehow, it reminds me of this: The Podkletnov Gravitational-Shield. That gives me pause.
That was my first thought too.
What a strange coincidence that they'd come up with what sounds pretty much like an exact duplcate of Podkletnov's work -- except that Podkletnov had the jump on them by ten years!
Didn't I read something about 4 or 5 years ago about NASA working with his theories?
I have not kept up on any of this, and am by no means qualified to weigh in on the merits of Podkletnov's claims, however, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist (or "advanced propulsion theoretician") to see the striking similarities between the two experiments (i.e., rotating superconductors acting as gravity modifiers).
The paper addresses the "gavitational shield" -- the effect discussed in the paper in an entirely different way. Where Podkletnov said that a spinning superconductor reduces the gravitational field above it, this effect is due to a superconducting ring undergoing angular acceleration. The new force acts in the same direction as the acceleration - tangentially to the edge superconducting ring rather than above its axis of rotation.