 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2024) |
A tractor beam is a device that can attract one object to another from a distance.[1] The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith (an update of his earlier "attractor beam") in his novel Spacehounds of IPC (1931). Since the 1990s, technology and research have labored to make it a reality, and have had some success on a microscopic level.[2] Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is known as a pressor beam or repulsor beam. Gravity impulse and gravity propulsion beams are traditionally areas of research from fringe physics that coincide with the concepts of tractor and repulsor beams.
- ^ "Nasa examines 'tractor beams' for sample-gathering". BBC News. November 1, 2011. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
- ^ "Star Trek style 'tractor beam' created by scientists". BBC. 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.