A force that pulls tiny metal plates together has been measured. Could it be harnessed for energy or propulsion in space?
A 2010 intelligence report examined whether energy could be extracted from the vacuum, including to power or propel spacecraft. It described a force measured between metal plates but offered no practical way to generate useful energy from it.
It is an attraction between metal plates placed very close together. It arises from a difference in vacuum fluctuations between the space inside the plates and the space outside them.
The report examined whether energy from the vacuum could power or propel a spacecraft without requiring it to carry material to eject.
No practical method for generating useful, sustained energy from the vacuum has been demonstrated.
A 2010 U.S. intelligence report examined an idea that sounds like science fiction: extracting energy from the vacuum of space. It asked whether real physical phenomena could be harnessed as a power source.
One such phenomenon pulls two nearby metal plates toward each other. The effect has been measured, but no one has shown how to use it to produce useful energy. The report also considered whether such energy could help a spacecraft move without carrying fuel.
The report was part of a series examining advanced technologies and their potential applications in space programs. In this case, the question was whether energy from the vacuum could provide power in space or propel a spacecraft without ejecting material to move forward.
That is why the idea appeared in an intelligence report: it concerned energy and propulsion in space, not UFOs. The report surveyed existing ideas and research; it did not present a finished invention.
When two uncharged metal plates are placed very close together, they attract each other. Scientists call this the Casimir force. It arises from a small difference in vacuum fluctuations between the plates and the space outside them.
Here, “vacuum” does not mean that absolutely nothing is there. In physics, even a seemingly empty space has a lowest-energy state for its fields. The report examined whether energy could be extracted from this state, including through the force between the plates.
But measuring an attraction between plates is not the same as generating electricity from it. The report surveyed several ideas and models, but describing them did not prove they could be used to build a power source.
The report offered no practical method for generating useful, sustained energy from the vacuum. Under the accepted explanation in physics, vacuum energy cannot be continuously converted in the way these ideas propose; the possibilities remain experimentally unverified.
Two tiny plates pull toward each other. Will that attraction remain a measurable phenomenon, or could it one day become a source of power in space?