Documents / FOIA release
This is a JPRS translation, dated 16 June 1992, of an article by Vladimir Lagovskiy in the Moscow newspaper Rabochaya Tribuna. It covers work at the Scientific Production Association of Experimental Machine Building, which has military ties, on a saucer-shaped vehicle. The vehicle would be driven by a fast electron flux acting on a high-temperature superconductor. Researcher Vasiliy Shabetnik also claims an 'energy conversion' process that could power a round trip to Alpha Centauri in 12 years.
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6. ...Here is the so-called 'Mohammed's tomb'-a saucer-shaped object from a cooled superconductor freely levitating in a magnetic field. Almost all developers of superconducting compounds used to 'experiment' with this trick. As for the enthusiasts, it infused them with creativity. They thought that it would be possible to hover over the earth in the same way in some miracle vehicle. It is possible. There are no theoretical obstacles to this. Yet there is a problem: upon close examination, the generally sound idea runs into impenetrable technical difficulties. 7. For example, in order to ascend in the geomagnetic field of our planet, it is necessary to create an incredibly strong magnetic intrinsic field around the "'saucer.'" Yet this is far from simple even with superconductors. But let us assume that it is possible by some means; how shall we then move in space? There is a special problem with magnetic fields there. 8. The vehicle must be equipped with additional sustainer engines, the enthusiasts were explaining away. This of course is a way out...yet would the game be then worth the candles? 9. In other words, for reasons easy to understand, many experts thought such methods of travel to be rather hypothetical than real. And then they found a solution. A simple one, as a solution should be. 10. ...An experimental unit. A fast electron flux. It emerges from an accelerator and speeds past the superconductor model. So, the 'Mohammed's tomb'' instantaneously jumps to the side. Even the eye cannot catch its swift motion. 11. 'Now imagine a real space vehicle,' Shabetnik says. Its airframe is covered with a high-Tinf>c superconductor. Fast electron emitters are installed circularly around it. The charged particles will be streamlining around the vehicle and by moving will create both a current and an electromagnetic field. So, the field and the current will be simultaneously induced in the superconducting layer. What will happen? The fields and the currents will begin to interact with Ampere's force. Simply speaking, their carriers will be repelled from each other. And this is undoubtedly more efficient than the interaction of a simple electromagnetic field of the vehicle with the earth's geomagnetic field. The vehicle will soar, as if floating in the electron medium which it itself created around itself. 12. The sphere is a perfect shape for interstellar travel. Yet for moving in an atmosphere, it is difficult to find anything better than the "'saucer." Consequently, it will probably be necessary to
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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.