X Prize Rejects Gravity Control Rocket Group

It was a weighty decision, not taken lightly, but X Prize officials voted last week to bar a group attempting to harness gravity from entering the contest aimed at promoting space tourism. The X Prize Foundation notified Gravity Control Technologies (GCT) of Budapest, Hungary that its application to become an X Prize team had not been accepted.

GCT was founded in 1999 and is a privately held aerospace research firm delving into superconductivity and Zero Point Energy Field physics in the hopes of achieving one-hundred percent propellant-less propulsion technology for flight.

The X Prize is a $10 million prize to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between entrepreneurs and rocket experts around the world. The purse is to be awarded to the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a spaceship able to carry three people to 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) altitude, then returns safely to Earth, repeating the launch with the same ship within two weeks.

GCT is on a quest to prove the existence of an underlying sea of energy at every point in the universe predicted by Quantum physics. This sea of energy is different from the cosmic microwave background and is also referred to as the electromagnetic quantum vacuum, since it is the lowest state of otherwise empty space. By utilizing a zero point field energy/superconductor-based propulsion system, GCT contends the door to space travel can truly be opened.

But in an X Prize Foundation letter to GCT, the rationale for closing the door on the group's X Prize team status is up-front.

Asked to comment on the GCT situation, Gregg Maryniak, Executive Director of the X Prize Foundation told SPACE.com: "Our policy is that we do not discuss pending applications. We only discuss them when they are approved," Maryniak said. "We have not accepted their [GCT's] application…and we haven't foreclosed the possibility of accepting their application," he said.

At present, there are 24 teams in seven countries that are officially registered as X Prize teams -- all vying for the $10 million purse, Maryniak said. "I'm ready to issue that check to somebody that actually does it."

Victor Rozsnyay, GCT's Founder and Chief Executive Officer, told SPACE.com he's not surprised by the X Prize Foundation decision and return of the $1,000 X Prize application fee. "Since Gravity Control Technologies is working on developing propulsion systems capable of controlling gravity for flight -- a 180 degree departure from what is currently accepted as feasible -- it was likely that our application would not be approved. All other X Prize teams are developing variations of rocket technology, including some ingenious designs," Rozsnyay said. Rozsnyay said that rocketry has been around for over half a century. That technology is tested and proven, he said. "Gravity control on the other hand does not -- and could not -- even exist according to traditional science," he explained.

One of the primarily goals of GCT research aims at introducing affordable, commercial scale space tourism vessels. A craft dubbed the "Space Tourist" would be capable of non-stop space excursions, carrying over a thousand people on each 8-hour flight. Preliminary design specifications call for a triple deck craft equipped with "Hull Wide Propulsion Assembly" technology. Seating will be provided for 1004 passengers, 25 flight attendants, and operated by a three-person crew. Given appropriate funding, GCT envisions flying an initial prototype of the Space Tourist around 2012.

"We feel that the X Prize committee acted in the best interest of the Foundation when rejecting our application," Rozsnyay said. "A certain level of credibility must be met for such a widely visible and respected organization. In the opinion of the X Prize Team Registration Committee, in its current stage of development, gravity control does not meet that credibility level." Rozsnyay said the X Prize letter offers to review another GCT application - as long as the group shows evidence for the feasibility of their propulsion idea. "We will continue to work toward this goal, and when successful, resubmit our application," he said. Rozsnyay said he thanks the X Prize for considering GCT's work and wished all the other teams in the race continued success. "May the best one win the prize," Rozsnyay said.

Date Posted: 29-Jul-2002 JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY - JULY 31, 2002

Anti-gravity propulsion comes 'out of the closet'

NICK COOK JDW Aerospace Consultant London

Boeing, the world's largest aircraft manufacturer, has admitted that it is working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could overturn a century of conventional aerospace propulsion technology if the science that underpins them - science that senior Boeing officials describe as "valid" - can be engineered into hardware.

As part of the effort, which is being run out of Boeing's Phantom Works advanced research and development facility in Seattle, the company is trying to solicit the services of a Russian scientist who claims he has developed 'high-' and 'low-power' anti-gravity devices in Russia and Finland.
The approach, however, has been thwarted by Russian officialdom.

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 briefing document on GRASP obtained by Jane's Defence Weekly sets out what Boeing believes to be at stake. "If gravity modification is real," it says, "it will alter the entire aerospace business." The report was written by Jamie Childress, principal investigator for Boeing's propellentless propulsion work at the Phantom Works in Seattle.

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 form of weapon system. 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 (10.16cm) wide beam's ability to repel objects a kilometre away and that it exhibits negligible power loss at distances of up to 200km (JDW 24 July). Such a device, observers say, could be adapted for use as an anti-satellite weapon or a ballistic missile shield.

The GRASP paper details the beam's reported characteristics: that it is immune to electromagnetic shielding, that it can penetrate any intermediate barriers (objects placed between the generator and the target), that it propagates at very high speed ("possibly light speed or greater") and that the total force is proportional to target mass - that its effect, in other words, is exactly the same as gravity's.

Podkletnov's claims first surfaced in 1992 when he published a paper detailing his low-power experiments into gravity-shielding using superconductors, materials that lose their electrical resistance at low temperatures. The original experiments were conducted at the University of Technology in Tampere, Finland, before moving to Russia.

Podkletnov, who has a PhD in materials science from Tampere and the University of Chemical Technology in Moscow, 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) went on to attempt a replication of his work in the mid-1990s.

Because NASA lacked Podkletnov's unique formula for the 30cm yttrium-barium copper oxide (YBCO) superconducting ceramic discs - a formula the Russian maintains is critical to the experiment's success - the attempt failed. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will shortly conduct a second set of experiments, this time using apparatus built to Podkletnov's specifications.

In August 2001, Podkletnov published a paper revealing his experimental high-power work and it is this that forms the focus of the GRASP report. Boeing wants to build its own impulse gravity generator at Seattle but admits that it lacks vital knowledge in the area of the YBCO emitter - Podkletnov's special superconducting apparatus - which forms the heart of the generator.

As a result, Boeing recently approached Podkletnov directly, but promptly fell foul of Russian technology transfer controls. George Muellner, the outgoing head of the Boeing Phantom Works, confirmed that attempts by Boeing to work with Podkletnov had been blocked by Moscow, which is seeking to stem the exodus of Russian high-technology to the West.

Muellner is convinced, however, that the science underpinning Podkletnov's work is real. "The physical principles - and Podkletnov's device is not the only one - appear to be valid," he said. He confirmed that Boeing had conducted tests on a number of other anti-gravity devices, some of which were detailed in JDW 24 July.

"There is basic science there. They're not breaking the laws of physics. The issue is whether the science can be engineered into something workable," Muellner said.

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.

GRASP concludes that a "positive result from experiments would give Boeing a substantial advantage in the aerospace industry".

Reported operation of high-power gravity device: the YBCO emitter is cooled to superconducting conditions and the inner electric coil produces a magnetic field inside it. A very high voltage pulse is input to the emitter which then discharges to the collector. The discharge is guided and contained by the magnetic field in the outer coil

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