A tractor beam is a hypothetical device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Tractor beams are frequently used in science fiction books and movies. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam. No real-world equivalents of these beams exist outside microscopic level (see optical tweezers). The exact specifics vary, but there are generalities. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... For other uses, see Book (disambiguation). ... This article is about motion pictures. ... An optical tweezer is a scientific instrument that uses a focused laser beam to provide an attractive or repulsive force, depending on the index mismatch (typically on the order of piconewtons) to physically hold and move microscopic dielectric objects. ...

Usage in fiction

Tractor beams are most commonly used on spaceships and space stations. They are generally used in two ways: The Space Shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station. ... The International Space Station in 2007 A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live in outer space. ...

1. As a device for securing or retrieving cargo, passengers, shuttlecraft, etc. This is analogous to cranes on modern ships.
2. As a means of preventing an enemy from escaping, analogous to grappling hooks.

In the latter case, there are usually countermeasures that can be employed against tractor beams. These may include pressor beams (a stronger pressor beam will counteract a weaker tractor beam) or plane shears aka shearing planes (a device to "cut" the tractor beam and render it ineffective). In some fictional realities shields can block tractor beams, or the generators can be disabled by sending a large amount of energy back up the beam to its source. A modern crawler type derrick crane with outriggers. ... For other uses, see Ship (disambiguation). ... A soldier loading the hook. ... An energy shield is a form of technology commonly found in science fiction, but also in development for real-life space travel[1]. // A number of efforts to design defensive energy fields are occuring in real life, most notably the efforts to design a deflector shield to protect spacecraft that...

Tractor beams and pressor beams can be used together as a weapon: by attracting one side of an enemy spaceship while repelling the other, one can create severely damaging shear effects in its hull. Another mode of destructive use of such beams is rapid alternating between pressing and pulling force in order to cause structural damage to the ship as well as inflicting lethal forces on its crew.

Two objects being brought together by a tractor beam are usually attracted toward their common center of gravity. This means that if a small spaceship applies a tractor beam to a large object such as a planet, the ship will be drawn towards the planet, rather than vice versa.

Tractor beams do not always work like this. In Star Trek, tractor beams are non-Newtonian. The target is always drawn toward the emitter, irrespective of mass, because the beam does not actually transmit a force across space. It functions similarly to the warp drive, manipulating space-time at the target's position.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Warp drive (disambiguation). ...

Appearances

Works containing well-known appearances of tractor beams include:

• Star Trek (TV series, movies, books, games)- However the USS Enterprise in the prequel series Enterprise does not employ tractor beams in favor of grappling lines.
• Star Wars (movies, books, games)
• Babylon 5 (TV series)
• Buck Rogers comic strip - originally just repulsor beams; tractors appeared by 1970s
• Galaga - used by the Galagas to steal the player's ship.
• The "Grabber" in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (games)
• The Salvage Corvette's "Salvage Field" in Homeworld (games)
• The Honor Harrington books by David Weber
• The Lensman books by E. E. Smith (possibly the original appearance)
• The Grapple Beam from the Metroid series (games)
• The seaQuest DSV episode "Splashdown."
• The Sector General books by James White (source of the combined tractor/pressor beam weapon)
• Starfire series - the combined tractor/pressor beam weapon
• Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer
• One Crystal Eres (magic spell) in Tales of Legendia and a magic spell in Tales of Phantasia (games) is named Tractor Beam, that launches the enemy in the air.
• In Eve Online (game), tractor beams are modules that can pull cargo canisters towards the ship in space.
• The Trigger by Arthur C. Clark involves the development of tractor beams in the early part of the novel.
• in Spaceballs, Spaceball 1 uses a tractor beam - referred to as a "magnetic beam" in the film - to intercept Princess Vespa's Mercedes space cruiser.
• The Taelon mothership on Earth: Final Conflict used tractor beams on several occasions.
• In The Incredibles, Syndrome uses zero-point energy.
• In Time Crisis 4, Wild Dog uses a Tractor Beam at one point to direct crates and other heavy objects at the players.
• In Austin Powers in Goldmember, Dr. Evil's evil plan involved using a tractor beam to crash a golden asteroid into the Earth, causing a terrential flood.
• Archie Comics, where it is caricatured as a literal "tractor"
• Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, It is used as a Gadget to move marked objects from one place to another, often presenting a plot advance.
• In Half-Life 2, Gordon Freeman is armed with a device called the "Gravity Gun", which can pick up, throw, and "punt" heavy or sharp objects with little or no effort. In the last mission, it is accidentally modified to manipulate biomatter, and can throw Combine soldiers to their deaths.
• A similar gun to the one in Half-Life 2,, called the "Uplink", appears in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, available to the player beginning with the second mission. In addition to a "gravity gun", the item also serves as a map and a time machine for the player's character, Sergeant Cortez.
• Another similar gun to Half-Life 2's gravity gun called the "Capture gun" appears as the primary tool in the Wii video game Elebits, where it is used to manipulate objects and capture the titular creatures.
• In Recess: School's Out a villain attempted to use a tractor beam to move the moon.
• The anime Uchuu Senkan Yamato (known as Star Blazers outside Japan). In one episode, multiple tractor beams on planet Gamilon were used to drag the Yamato into a trap.

This article is about the entire Star Trek franchise. ... The Enterprise (NX-01) is a starship in the Star Trek fictional universe commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer. ... The starship Enterprise (NX-01) Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. ... This article is about the series. ... Babylon 5 is an epic American science fiction television series created, produced, and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. ... Buck Rogers is a fictional pulp character who first appeared in 1928 as Anthony Rogers, the hero of two novellas by Philip Francis Nowlan published in the magazine Amazing Stories. ... Galaga is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1981 (and also licensed to Midway). ... Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil is a first-person shooter expansion pack for the 2004 video game, Doom 3. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For the term used in science-fiction, see Core worlds. ... Honor Stephanie Harrington is a fictional character, the eponymous heroine of a series of science fiction books set in the Honorverse, written by David Weber and published by Baen Books. ... Honor Harrington from Honor Among Enemies cover, by David Mattingly. ... The Lensman series is a serial science fiction space opera by E. E. Smith. ... This article is about the author. ... Box art of the first Metroid game The Metroid ) games are a series of video games produced by Nintendo. ... This section has been identified as trivia. ... Splashdown was the final episode of seaQuest DSV`s second season. ... Sector General is a series of science fiction books, created and written by Irish SF author James White. ... James White (April 7, 1928 - August 23, 1999) was a prolific Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories, and novels. ... Honor Harrington from Honor Among Enemies cover, by David Mattingly. ... Robert J. Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer, dubbed the dean of Canadian science fiction by the Ottawa Citizen in 1999. ... EVE Online is a persistent world multiplayer online game set in space. ... The Trigger is a 2000 science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Michael P. Kube-McDowell. ... Arthur C. Clarke, considered by many to be a grand master of science fiction and communication satellites Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is a British author and inventor, probably most famous for his science fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Bold text Spaceballs is a 1987 science fiction parody film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks. ... A Taelon The Taelons are a fictional race of humanoid aliens appearing in the American television series Earth: Final Conflict. ... Earth: Final Conflict is a science fiction television series posthumously created by Gene Roddenberry. ... The Incredibles is a 2004 American Academy Award-winning computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, centering around a family of superheroes. ... Buddy Pine (supervillain name Syndrome; calls himself Incredi-Boy earlier in the film) is a fictional character, the main supervillain featured in the film The Incredibles, (produced by Pixar and Disney, first released on November 5th, 2004), the short film Jack-Jack Attack, and the Disney on Ice play, Disney... In physics, the zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may possess and is the energy of the ground state of the system. ... Time Crisis 4 is the fourth installment in Namcos Time Crisis series. ... Wild Dog is a fictional villain from the Time Crisis series. ... Austin Powers in Goldmember, released in 2002, is the third film of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. ... Dr. Evil is a fictional supervillain played by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers film series. ... Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenage Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Jughead Jones characters created by Bob Montana. ... Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando is a 3D platformer game for the Playstation 2. ... Half-Life 2 (commonly abbreviated to HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ... Gordon Freeman, Ph. ... The Combine is a powerful alien race and empire from Valve Corporations 2004 first-person shooter computer game Half-Life 2. ... TimeSplitters: Future Perfect Categories: 2005 computer and video games | GameCube games | PlayStation 2 games | Xbox games | First-person shooters | Computer and video game stubs ... A time machine is a device for traveling through time. ... Sergeant Cortez is a fictional character and the protagonist of the last two games in the TimeSplitters series. ... The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ... Elebits ), known in Europe and Australia as Eledees, [3] is a video game for Nintendos Wii console by Konami. ... Starblazers redirects here. ...

External links

• Tractor beam article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki