NASA | Making Tractor Beams a Reality (Eventually)

Tractor beams -- the ability to trap and move objects using laser light -- are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis. This animation shows how a hypothetical future mission might eventually employ tractor beam technology.
This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: ‪http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?20189

Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast:
‪http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/iTunes/f...‬

Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on facebook:
‪http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC‬

Or find us on Twitter:
‪http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard‬

• Category

  Science & Technology

[sushanalone]

No music? oh its space!

[delerium2k]

In the future there will be robots... and sound in space.

[teargardens]

Old technology! More smoke and mirrors for the masses! Scalar super weaponry is the END ALL tech.

Thomas E. Bearden & Nikola Tesla to great sources of information.

[roidroid]

I have no literally idea of the physics involved in this video.

Does anyone?

Or is this just some "oh wouldn't it be cool if magic existed" bullshit.

I mean a laser beam attracting particles towards it? oh sure we learned all about that in school.

WHAT

[Fly2Azeroth]

so go to space

[V3ryan]

Looks more like the excursion funnel from Portal 2. Also, I guess I was watching too many sci-fi movies, I was expecting it to pull the comet off course or something.

[interested976]

It would be nice to get this on my Iphone so I don't have to move to get the paper. Then I can kill the dog.

[Michael Kwan]

In space, no one can hear you scream.

[djsuperstar717]

It wasn't hazy like a dream, everything was as clear as it is right now, as I'm commenting on this page

[MilezUndead]

that's why there's a description