Dr. Randall Peters (Professor, Mercer University Physics Department) is slated to serve as principal consultant on the following NASA project, which will use a Cavendish apparatus that employs his "symmetric differential capacitive (SDC) sensors":
This project is one of the first six grants awarded through NASA Glenn,
as part of the "Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program", described
at the following web addresses:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/pressrel/99_66a.htm, and
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/pressrel/99_66addm.htm.
Part of the Robertson/Litchford proposal reads as follows:
"In response to the propulsion challenges specified by NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) program, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center proposes to empirically explore the possibility of iinducing gravity modification through Josephson junction effects in magnetized, high-Tc superconducting oxides. Our technical goal is to critically test emerging physical concepts and provide rigorous empirical confirmation (or refutation) of anomalous effects related to the manipulation of gravity by magnetized type-II superconductors. Because the current empirical evidence for gravity modification is anecdotal, we propose, as a first step, to design, construct, and meticulously carry out a discriminating experiment. Our approach is unique in that we will construct an extremely sensitive torsional gravity balance to measure gravity modification effects by radio-frequency-pumped type-II superconductor test masses. Analysis indicates that an effective change in mass of less than 1 percent would be readily detectable by state-of-the-art differential capacitance transducers. The entire project is to be completed in 12 months. If uncontested positive effects can be detected, it would seem to imply a fundamentally new method for creating motion without propellant. This goes directly to the heart of BPP goal 1 which has the stated aim of reducing or eliminating the need for mass ejection from spacecraft propulsion systems."
The "state-of-the-art differential capacitance transducers" mentioned in the proposal are a pair of Dr. Peters' SDC sensors operating in phase opposition to eliminate the pendulous noises of the Cavendish balance.