Documents / FOIA release
This unclassified CIA-distributed JPRS translation, dated 1 December 1992, reproduces an article by Lieutenant Colonel V. Maksimovskiy from the Moscow journal Aviatsiya i Kosmonavtika. It describes V. Shabetnik's proposed propulsion method for a spherical craft covered in superconducting material and driven by electron accelerators rather than hydrocarbon fuel. It reports tests in March and May 1992 in which a small superconductor model developed more than 22.5 grams of force, and it notes that the models moved like flying saucers.
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Document 2 of 4 Page 2 6. Vasiliy Dmitriyevich long ago set himself the task of finding a means of doing without the use of thermal energy in engines by converting the energy from an on-board source directly into performance. The point is that the disorganized thermal movement of molecules in a working fluid cannot be completely regulated by organizing the process of its discharge in rocket or jet engines, and thrust is created in them very inefficiently for this reason. Shabetnik came to the conclusion that Tsiolkovskiy's formula is similar to Boltzmann's formula, which characterizes the entropy of a system and confirms the need for very high expenditures of energy to boost rockets to high speeds. Indeed, the useful load eliminated in low near-earth orbit makes up only 2 to 4 percent of the initial mass of a booster rocket. This conclusion applies to all engines which utilize the energy of discharged masses to create thrust, including plasma, ions, and photons. But if we are referring to manned flights beyond the solar system, when much greater speeds must be reached, there are serious doubts about the possibility of realizing them. 7. First of all, Shabetnik came to the conclusion that the fundamental subatomic particles (electrons, protons, and neutrons), as well as photons, have a structure that is quite specific. This conflicts with the assumptions of quantum physics and the statistical, random concepts of matter. But it was precisely such an approach that made it possible to evaluate the phenomenon of superconductivity in a completely untraditional way and to arrive at the creation of high-temperature superconducting materials. Their use makes it possible to eliminate the losses of electric energy and to develop fundamentally new devices. 8. Second, an innovator had established and explained the phenomenon of energy conversion. Back in 1959, our scientist P. Oshchepkov conducted an experiment: he sent current through a semiconductor and measured the heat release. It turned out that 2.19 times more thermal energy is obtained than if electrical energy is used. At the same time, the phenomenon was not explained. Shabetnik determined the conditions under which several times as much energy is obtained through the internal energy of a substance than is conducted to a device. Thus, he considers a fourfold increase in it to be technologically feasible. And this makes it possible to create an energy generator. ## 9. 'Muhammad's Coffin' 10. How does Shabetnik visualize the configuration of a spacecraft? In his opinion, a hull spherical in shape is best suited for flights in outer space. It should be covered entirely with a layer of superconductive material (in the jargon of physicists, this is called
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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.