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12/26/03 - 2003 Year-End Report: 2003 proved to be a difficult and at times frustrating year for supporting and advancing the important work we have undertaken in developing our EDF Generator as a new over-unity energy source. However, we're extremely pleased and proud to announce that we now have a duly-executed Term Sheet and Joint Venture Agreement with our current Sponsor, Dr. Robert Langgons of Icefire Systems, Inc. in Corinth, MS, which could provide sufficient funding over the course of the next 6 to 8 months for us to complete the construction and testing of a prototype 24kw StarDrive Generator.
Dr. Langgons has been instrumental this year not only in ensuring that we've had the resources to conduct our proof-of-concept experimentation, a second-version assembly for which will be incorporated into the initial prototype, but also in making sure that we're current in meeting the substantial expenses incurred in the foreign Patent rights campaign (for the EDF Generator) and will remain so through at least June of 2004. Our profound gratitude is hereby acknowledged.
It is our feeling that the coming year will be a pivotal one in our esoteric and controversial field of endeavor, and we sincerely hope to demonstrate in 2004 a fundamental breakthrough in over-unity power generation on a large scale – when few of the other notable developers in this field have yet been able to make any substantive forward strides in promoting their work. But we wish all of our "competitors" the best of luck in this respect, for there are very few scientific undertakings indeed that are more important at this time in history yet for which it is more difficult to secure proper underwriting.
12/26/03 - "Happy Holidays" from Archer Enterprises!: We hope all of you enjoyed a Merry Christmas, and extend our best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year. As our StarDrive Engineering Project continues into 2004, we would like to encourage our new and regular visitors alike to review some of the latest updates to our website, as many of the major pages have recently been significantly improved and/or expanded. Numerous new links to excellent related sites and reference material have also been added, particularly on the Power Plant and Utility Plant Specs pages. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions, and hope that you'll come back soon for our 2003 Year-End Report and Prototype Project update.
10/14/03 - A 21st Century Man of Vision: While it isn't exactly a breaking story, we feel that it's important to ask for another round of applause for presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark, who candidly expressed to a recent New Hampshire gathering the conviction that mankind can and will one day engineer faster-than-light starships! Right on, Gen. Clark, and three cheers!!! For more about this interesting story, please check out this Wired News article.
[Clark's comment about FTL travel came at the end of his long answer to a question about his views on NASA and the U.S. space program. Clark said that he supports the agency and believes "America needs a dream and a space program." But he said the nation must prioritize its technological goals and take a pragmatic approach to focusing its scientific resources and talent. "Some goals may take a lifetime to reach," he said. "We need to set those goals now. We need to rededicate ourselves to science, engineering and technology in this country."]
09/07/03 - A Project Status Memorandum: A short time ago, I received an e-mail enquiry from an Air Force Staff Sergeant stationed at Lackland AFB, who essentially wanted to know what the status of our 'StarDrive Engineering Project' is at present. His letter and an extract of our reply are reproduced below, since this same material may also serve well as a general update and situation report for those interested:
>to: mark@stardrivedevice.com
>sent: Thursday, Aug. 28, 2003
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Curious: You didn't work for NASA at one time, did you??? Have you built a prototype for testing purposes? What issues have you run into?
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Hello, SSgt. _______:
Thank you for writing, and for your interest in my work . . . To answer your questions:
1) No, I never worked for NASA; I'm an electrical engineer and electric motor/generator technician by trade. NASA doesn't seem to be forward-thinking or open-minded enough to have much interest in my work, which is not only regrettable but in my opinion very foolish as well.
2) We've only just commenced building a very small air-cooled prototype of the EDF Generator's electric power output variant (30"-dia., 24 kW). We can see now that there will be no real interest in the complex propulsive variant of this technology unless WE demonstrate the underlying over-unity aspect first. The overwhelming mathematical and engineering substantiation for the design and operating theory that I've provided in the Patent and in my book still isn't enough to overcome the ignorance and apathy of most people today – even those who have enough money and influence to make this happen. And the preconceived foolish notions that the "information age" conditions them to have about this particular type of machine are certainly no help!
3) This brings me to your last question. At the risk of belaboring the point, I'm going to quote from an e-mail I recently sent to a college student in reply to his asking "if we can do this NOW, what's stopping us?". This speaks directly to the 'issues' at hand:
"The signal lack of real interest in this technology is simply staggering to us, and is responsible for the very slow pace of my fund-raising and prototyping progress thus far. We have a realistic assurance that this situation will change soon, and are doing our absolute best to roll out our 24kW Generator Prototype Project this fall. Let's hope so, because it's going to be up to us to convince a few more exceptional people in this sad world that this device can and must be developed! It really seems as if most folks don't want to believe in anyone's ability to achieve something like this . . .
"Consider this: our website regularly receives [now well over 2,000] visitors per week. Not so long ago, we received numerous cynical e-mails wanting to know when the promised new Proof-of-Concept webpage was going to be posted. Since everyone's having such a hard time understanding this relatively simple machine, we worked pretty hard to deliver the best Report about our PoC experimental efforts that we could – and have to date received only a single feedback response about it!
" . . . it's obvious at this point that I am going to get precious little [good help with this . . . project]. Everyone seems to think that it should be totally up to me to prove to them "on my own dime" that the EDF Generator works [as claimed], and until then they're going to choose NOT to believe. I guess I'm 'guilty' until I prove myself innocent! . . .
"It is therefore gratifying to receive your letter, in light of the additional observation that we only rarely ever hear from students like yourself, despite the fact that they're our single biggest (and, we would have thought, best) 'demographic group' . . ."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
My work is currently proceeding due solely to the intervention of a retired Navy SEAL, who has graciously funded my final pre-prototype Proof-of-Concept experiments with a view to underwriting the entire estimated mid-six-figure cost of our 24 kW Prototype Project. And it could be that only the military has the sense to seriously back me, although "they" have been pretty quiet about it so far. Maybe with my benefactor's help we can get the Navy interested. About 1.5% of our website's weekly traffic is from military servers, so who knows, right? . . .
Thanks again for writing, and please feel free to do so anytime.
Sincerely,
Mark R. Tomion
Pres.
Archer Enterprises
06/11/03 - Pro-Concept Experiment Report Page Posted: For an interesting and detailed tech bulletin about fundamental EDF (StarDrive) Generator design and operation issues, please visit our new 1st Proof-of-Concept Experiment Report webpage. This Report (with photos of the test set-up) documents and interprets the verified results of the first-stage 'pro-concept' experimentation, and discusses our plans for proceeding to the next level of over-unity 24kW Generator prototyping. As it happens, today is also the 1-year anniversary of the issuance of the EDF Generator's U.S. Patent, which may be accessed directly from our website.
05/21/03 - New Electrolysis Page Posted: Visitors to our site who are primarily interested in alternative energy systems may wish to take a look at our Electrolysis page, which offers a informative and thought-provoking discussion of the great problems to be faced in trying to develop a hydrogen fuel cell energy program. This report examines the only three (3) methods of producing hydrogen which presently have any realistic viability for practical use on a commercial scale, two of which are electrolytic in nature. In due course, it also assesses how our StarDrive Generator technology could be used to help make hydrogen financially feasible as a motor fuel – because at present it simply is not.
05/12/03 - 1st Proof-of-Concept Experiment Results: As those who've been following Archer Enterprises' StarDrive Engineering Project news updates already know, we have recently been engaged in building and testing a full-scale experimental mock-up of our over-unity 24kW StarDrive (EDF) Generator's primary power system. Over-unity engineering enthusiasts should be very pleased to know that the initial in-house testing we've just completed indicates our PoC experiment is a qualified but extremely encouraging success!
What the first PoC experiment has established are the two crucial features of the EDF Generator which are necessary to enable its over-unity operation: (1) that brushless electrostatic induction means can be used to fully-energize the low-resistance/high-ampacity rotor with negligible input electrical power, while at the same time effectively isolating the input circuit from the device's output current; and (2) that a net positive voltage will be induced on the rotor's primary anode rings which is sufficient to excite the Primary Arrays that initiate the Field Induction System's output circuit current.
While the anode ring voltage induced was markedly lower than we had hoped, due to induction ring charge leakage from operation in air and the unavoidably imprecise nature of the hand-built test set-up, it was in fact sufficient to show that we will be able (in final practice) to achieve operating conditions in the EDF Generator which are comparable to those in the pentode vacuum tubes upon which the design of the device's Primary Arrays is based. Unlike in a typical pentode tube, however, the Field Induction System's cathode heaters will again require negligible input power once the "run" no-load housing circuit current is established through the power resistors, due to internal heating, and this is the very feature which will ultimately support over-unity operation in this device.
It should be noted that this PoC experiment is not intended to model either the construction or operation of the Field Induction System, which is essentially the "other half" of the EDF Generator electrically. The modular electron source assemblies (comprised of cylindrical heaters, rod-shaped resistors, wafer cathodes, and screen-mesh control grids) in the prototype Generator will be designed and built to our specifications in association with a selected outside vendor, and represent nearly off-the-shelf components in some cases.
Admittedly, much of the preceding synopsis may be "Greek" to those who have little technical training in this or a related field. However, we are preparing a Report (including pictures) which will document and interpret our verified experimental results and their bearing on the 24kW prototype of the Electrodynamic Field Generator that we feel has such enormous potential to effect a radical reduction in the cost of producing electric power. That Proof-of-Concept Experiment Report will be uploaded to our site as soon as possible. [Note: posted on 6/11/03.]
03/18/03 - Proof-of-Concept Experiment: In conjunction with one of our StarDrive Generator project funding proposals, we are presently working on an interim proof-of-concept experiment for our planned 24kW air-cooled EDF Generator prototype. This full-scale mock-up of the 30"-diameter Generator's rotor and dual induction ring assemblies is intended to demonstrate the fundamental design principal discussed at the close of the Technical Overview (linked to this website's Method of Operation Summary page), whereby the voltage electrostatically induced on the rotor anode rings which power each Primary Array should ideally be roughly one-third (1/3) of the Field Coil voltage [due to the capacitive dual induction ring geometry of the Primary Power System].
The experiment will also assist greatly in the derivation of remaining production model specifications, and will incorporate production-quality rotor segments and electrode rings. Should this proof-of-concept experiment be successful, not only will the ability of our over-unity 24kW Generator prototype to deliver large-scale DC output compatible with typical AC inverters (for utility grid distribution or off-grid conventional use) be all but assured, but a major milestone incentive in our existing funding proposals will have been fulfilled as well. Further updates will be forthcoming, so please check back.
02/01/03 - In Memory of Columbia: Those of us at Archer Enterprises and Affirm Technology Partners would like to extend our deepest sympathies to NASA, the international space effort, and the family and friends of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, lost this day at 200,000 ft. during reentry and landing descent. We will pray that this second Shuttle tragedy does not once again suspend or unduly impede our space program, but perhaps instead renews our commitment and pride therein. May it also encourage us to redouble our efforts to find a much better way to reach for the stars.
01/28/03 - International Patent Filings Secured!: We are very pleased to report that we were successful in our efforts to secure several international (PCT) Patent Application filings for the Electrodynamic Field Generator by the final deadline of January 21, 2003! These important filings were effected in Australia, Canada, the People's Republic of China, the European Union (including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), India, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, and South Africa. This exciting development is the result of 3 months of intensive effort, and is largely due to the terrific work of Bryan Willoughby of Affirm Technology Partners. Many, many thanks, Bryan!!
The securing of these key Patent Application filings adds immeasurable value to our StarDrive Engineering Project overall, as it will greatly protect and enhance our investors' upside global market potential (assuming, of course, that our 24kW StarDrive Generator prototype is successful)! Be sure to check back from time to time for further updates as we proceed into the development phase of the Project.
11/02/02 - Important Position Memorandum: Archer Enterprises would like to thank all of the many hundreds of people who regularly visit our website, and who constitute the main part of our growing following in the field of breakthrough propulsion physics. While the great majority of the feedback I receive in this regard is very positive, I'm also used to hearing time-to-time from those who express varying degrees of skepticism regarding my work. And although many potential correspondents of supposed academic stature in this field seem to have adopted a wait-and-see attitude concerning my proposed 'StarDrive' propulsion technology, I've have never to date received a single letter of condemnation from any bona fide member of the academic community regarding the integrity and viability of our StarDrive Engineering project. [Note: It seems that most theoreticians simply can't accept that there may be a relatively straightforward electromechanical solution to the intractable problem of FTL drive, which would leave much of the purely academic efforts in this area in a position of less real-world relevance!]
No one has yet been able to give the slightest evidence that the ultra-high-voltage propulsive variant of the StarDrive device I've developed and patented won't work exactly as we claim – and in fact I will claim that it is the most sophisticated and viable starship propulsion system on Earth! Not only does it fulfill all of the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program's criteria for a workable reactionless FTL propulsion methodology, but it fulfills an additional and all-important criterion that the NASA project managers seem to have overlooked: No other such propulsion methodology known or yet proposed would provide the inherent heavy EM shielding capability that will be absolutely essential to protect both ship and crew (from collision with interstellar debris and radiation) across the vessel's entire velocity range!
And so, my position is simply this: what sense does it make for NASA to waste our tax dollars for the next 15 or 20 years messing around with nuclear-powered ion rockets, as they seem fully prepared to do, when such an unshielded ship and its crew could never survive travelling at any substantial portion of the velocity that even such a relatively primitive vessel would be capable of?!
Sincerely,
Mark R. Tomion
Pres.
Archer Enterprises
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To review previously posted News items, by year: 2003 2004 2005 2006
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