The federal government has spent years investing millions into funding research projects straight out of a sci-fi movie.
The projects dating back to 2009 include those focused on invisibility cloaking, traversable wormholes, negative energy, anti-gravity, high-frequency gravitational wave communications, and a proposal to tunnel a hole through the moon. Research into the projects was done to assess the military and defense capabilities of the new technologies.
The Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program, through the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, received $10 million in the 2008 Defense Supplemental Appropriation Act and $12 million from the 2010 Defense Appropriations Act for the research, according to documents obtained by Vice‘s Motherboard.
“None of these technologies ever seem to have gotten remotely close to being a reality, as far as we know,” the outlet claimed Tuesday.
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The document “Invisibility Cloaking: Theory and Experiments” explored “camouflage, transparency, and cloaking” and “honestly discusses technological challenges to making a practical invisibility cloak,” according to a Defense Intelligence Agency memo. Another report titled “Negative Mass Propulsion” looked into the possibility of harnessing wells of negative mass for space travel, “suggesting that tunneling through the moon, provided there is a good supply of negative mass, could revolutionize interstellar space flight.”
The two programs relied on contract research conducted by an arm of a private company, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Studies, which is owned by eccentric hotel magnate Robert Bigelow, a personal friend of the late Sen. Harry Reid. Bigelow lobbied for the creation of the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program while Reid created funding for it and also drafted the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program contract, the report said, citing Popular Mechanics.
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Reid asked then-Secretary of Defense William Lynn III to make large portions of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program classified in a 2009 letter, claiming that further study of the projects would “likely lead to technology advancements that in the immediate near-term will require extraordinary protection.” He also claimed that the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program would give the United States “a distinct advantage over any foreign threats” and allow the country “to maintain its preeminence as a world leader.”
