Measure of absolute speed through the Bradley aberration of light beams on a three-axis frame

Applied Physics Department, University of Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain

Corresponding author: Gsardin@fao.ub.es

Received: 7 April 2000
Accepted: 20 November 2000

Abstract

An electromagnetic speed-meter made of a three-dimensional frame is proposed, which allows measuring speeds independently of any external reference. The device is constituted by three orthogonal light beams and uses the motion-induced aberration of light or Bradley aberration. The frame is formed by three orthogonal beams which stand for the three axes. On the top of each axis arm of the frame a diode laser is fixed whose divergent beam impinges on a convergent lens which focalizes the light on an optoelectronic position detector of high resolution, placed on the base of each arm. The shift of each beam spot due to aberration of light is recorded, from which the motion of the frame is derived. Furthermore, if it is settled on a spacecraft its motion can be controlled in a way to record no aberration shift on any axis, indicating that the spacecraft is then at rest in the cosmic space. Since the referential frame does not use any external reference, it can be taken as a universal frame from which absolute speeds can be defined.