Now you see it, now you don’t – Cloaking 101

Not limited to use in space but limited at present in application, a cloaking device of sorts is being developed by Duke’s school of engineering.

It works by bending the light around the object and then resuming its path. Limitations exist at present where the object will still be in view from several angles, but once one figures it from one angle how long until the rest follow? First discovered in 2006, the concept requires some difficult to make and rather expensive materials but as we all know the beginning is always slower and more expensive but often yields great results.

Meta-Materials are the assembling of many elements to form a new and extra-special new material. Their expense comes from the precise shape, size and orientation at the microscopic level which allows for the creation of properties that are unavailable when using conventional methods.

At present we are able to utilize this for invisibility cloaking, but there is so much more. Perhaps this will solve the radiation problem in space that threatens astronauts on their long journeys. As detailed, Meta-Materials are about the creation of new properties from old; This means that we are limited only by our own minds, and maybe physics.