Documents / FOIA release
This 1992 JPRS report, dated 16 June 1992 and held in the CIA collection, translates a Rabochaya Tribuna article by Vladimir Lagovskiy called "Flight to Alpha Centauri." The article reports that specialists at the Experimental Machine Building Scientific Research Association say they built a high-temperature superconductor. They propose using it for a saucer-shaped spacecraft driven by electron flux. Scientist Vasiliy Shabetnik also describes an "energy conversion" process that he says could power a flight to Alpha Centauri and back in 12 years.
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# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1992 Document 4 of 20 Page 5 30. ''And can it be used in some way?'' 31. 'If you please. You could even build power plants instead of conventional ones. But I repeat, it will all be unbelievably primitive-water, boiling...And of course, such a converter would not be fit for space flights.' 32. 'We have found an electric analogue of processes involving energy conversion,' continues Shabetnik. 'And energy can be extracted not just from water but, let's say, from metal as well. It is conceivable that you could connect our converter to an electric generator. And the output would be fourfold the energy that it could provide while operating conventionally. A fourth could be diverted to feed the generator, and you would have the rest as a gift from your microworld. 33. ''But in reality everything is of course more complicated. In essence, an energy converter consists of several devices working in conjunction with one another. The main components are a closed superconductor and control system. They are for ground needs. The electron accelerator that is connected to the circuit transforms the converter into a spacecraft engine. With its help, a spacecraft can fly to Alpha Centauri and back to earth in 12 years.'" 34. ''Has it been possible to recreate these processes, if only in experiments?'' 35. 'Yes. Otherwise I would never have told you anything. According to our calculations, the energy hidden in a kilogram of iron is completely sufficient for interstellar travel.' 36. As far as the future is concerned, let us say straight out that it is fantastic. Even without flights to other worlds. Indeed energy converters will be used to meet needs on earth. The time has already come to dream not only of miraculous generators capable of replacing nightmarish nuclear and thermal power plants or of new means of travel. Our entire lives will be turned around. 37.
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 5 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.