.

How much farther, Papa Smurf?
—Exhausted Smurf follower
Not far now!
—Papa Smurf

It’s become a tiresome pattern: Steorn makes promises about when Orbo will finally be unveiled. The much anticipated demo/talk/jury-validation fails to materialize. Sean McCarthy does an interview/press release/video telling us that everything’s still going according to plan, and promising us a new timeframe for when Orbo will be revealed.

As a refresher, let’s review the latest cycle. In late 2008, revelations were promised by the end of the year. By January the date had been moved to February. In February Steorn updated their web site, posted press releases and did interviews. Was Orbo shown? No. But, they did promise that Orbo would be unveiled during 2009, through public talks given at universities first in the Middle East, then Europe, and lastly in the United States. In March and April, Sean did verifiably deliver talks at two Middle Eastern universities, but he had no Orbo to show. There’s no evidence that the promised talks in Europe and the U.S. ever took place, though Sean has stated on the public forums that some smaller scale, more private talks were given at universities in those regions. Now, after the much touted jury of scientists has delivered their verdict of “no evidence for free energy” (which Sean spins as a verdict of “we were too lazy to really look into it”), Sean does another round of publicity, this time making a rare appearance on the public forum followed by a interview with the blog Free Energy Times. The upshot? Everything’s going fine — Orbo will be revealed at the end of this year.

This cycle has taken us through three full years so far, since Steorn first placed their ad in the Economist, promising a future of free and clean energy. So it seems hardly worth reporting this latest iteration. But, there stubbornly remains that small hope that they really mean it this time; that the end of 2009 will arrive and Orbo will usher in a new era. In service of that enduring dream, I present the meatiest excerpts from Sean’s latest interview:

FreeEnergyTimes: You have said several times that there would be a public launch of your Orbo technology before the end of 2009. Is Steorn still on track to meet that timeline?
Sean McCarthy: Yes … The demonstration will involve a public display of various Orbo systems, there will be a live video-stream from the location that people can watch via our website.

FET: In a statement made earlier this year you stated that before 2009, “Implementing Orbo in a reliable and consistent manner had remained a challenge for the organization” but that this year you had “had resolved the key technical problems related to the implementation of Orbo”. Can you say anything regarding the technical breakthroughs you have made?

SM: One of the key problems that we have always faced in implementing Orbo are bearings. The reason is that a typical Orbo interaction involves very strong radial forces that change direction in very small angular displacements. Hence an Orbo system built using traditional bearings is like driving you car at high speed over speed bumps – you can do it, but after a small distance you car will simply break down. The key technical advance that we have made with respect to implementation is a move away from the use of traditional bearing technologies to the use of our own passive magnetic bearing technology, ZeroF.

FET: Can the orbo effect be reconciled to currently known laws of science – or have you discovered something previously unknown that will require science textbooks to be rewritten, and old theories to be discarded?

SM: As strange as many people find this, every single part of an Orbo interaction can be explained using classical physics, except the net result.

FET: How difficult do you think it will it be for third party developers to incorporate Orbo into useful products? Does the technology have the potential for kinds of power output required for such things as transportation, construction and agriculture?

SM: Perhaps one of the most misunderstood part of Orbo is power output. In an Orbo system the power output is simply a function of the rotational speed of the system. Hence power output is scalable. There are no theoretical limits to the power output that can be produced, however there will be a significant amount of engineering work.

FET: On Steorn’s web site you state that “Every aspect of society from finance, economics and business to education, science and politics will have to adjust to the new opportunities being created by Orbo technology”. Why do think Orbo technology is going to have such a widespread impact?

SM: The availability of free energy will change everything, the availability of free energy in the form of Orbo is even more significant since it can be engineered directly into devices, i.e. no grid connections are required. So Orbo will impact every aspect of our lives.

FET: What would you say to individuals and companies who are very intrigued by your technology and who are eager to develop products that use Orbo?

SM: I would say that launch is not far away, that access to Orbo will be low cost and readily available. And finally I would say never let anyone do your thinking for you – get involved!

Unless something of note takes place before then, I’ll be back at the end of the year with an update. Let’s hope I’ll have more to report than yet another date to look forward to.