Section-F of the University of New Mexico’s STAIF Conference has rapidly become the hottest venue for Antigravity & Breakthrough Propulsion researchers to learn about the latest trends in emerging space technologies. We join Conference Chairman Paul Murad for an inside look at what makes this forum so uniquely valuable, and what brought it all together in the beginning…
"I presented papers at AIAA conferences for most of my career. In the early nineties, I submitted papers on topics that focused around UFOs but I never mentioned the subject in the abstract. The reviewers accepted the papers on the basis of the abstracts... No one wants to lose credibility by talking about UFOs or going faster than the speed of light. AIAA reviewers started to scan my papers for any mention of UFOs and my papers would soon be rejected. Now this is unusual because I and my colleagues are not children. Why would we be afraid of such things as mentioning UFOs?...
...Toward the end of the 2003 HFGW conference, Marc Millis approached me and asked if I would be willing to run a conference at STAIF on similar subjects. Tony Robertson was there and when I said yes, Tony agreed to be my co-chair. Baker, Chuck Suchomel, and Frank Mead also asked to help. Marc was asked to provide me with the paper selection criteria that he formerly used for STAIF.
It is always difficult to estimate or predict what will happen at a conference. It can be amusing and a surprise. You may meet somebody that could, with a few words, give you a host of brand new ideas to think about. Last year, several people sat me down to talk about a potential paper for reviving the Single-Stage-to-Orbit concept that was cancelled with NASP. They presented an extremely interesting idea where the craft would use an Aneutronic reactor as a major component of the propulsion system. This is an exciting option and opens a whole host of new technology problems where the vehicle could deliver a large payload almost to the Moon… All in a single stage vehicle!" --Paul Murad
PDF Link: The Birth of Section-F (Paul Murad Interview)
File Size: 430kb (PDF 7)
Site: STAIF 2006
Wired calls him "The Linus Torvalds of Antigravity", but NASA still won't return his calls. Since the birth of American Antigravity in 2002, Tim has been featured on a multitude of television networks, such as Nippon TV and the BBC, as well as extensively covered in print by sources as diverse as Wired Magazine and Jane's Defense Weekly.