UAP Personalities

Charles R. “Charlie” Buhler is a NASA electrostatics specialist and applied-physics researcher whose career is rooted in the practical hazards and opportunities of charging phenomena in space: how insulating materials accumulate charge, when that charge becomes destructive arcing, and how electric fields can be used to manipulate dust and contaminants in vacuum. In recent years, Buhler became broadly known outside NASA through his role as a co-founder of Exodus Propulsion Technologies, a private effort claiming a “propellantless” propulsion effect produced by engineered electrostatic structures. This unusual dual footprint—mission-critical electrostatics work on one side, and a highly controversial propulsion claim on the other—made Buhler a frequent reference point in modern UAP-adjacent “breakthrough propulsion” discourse.

Buhler’s technical identity is anchored in electrostatics and surface physics—an area that becomes uniquely high-stakes in spacecraft environments. In vacuum, insulating surfaces can charge in counterintuitive ways; discharge events can damage electronics; and the same forces that create risk can also be used as tools. Within NASA’s electrostatics and surface-physics context, he is associated with sustained work on measuring, modeling, and controlling charging and dust behavior under space-relevant conditions, including thermal-vacuum environments and abrasive regolith simulants.

Buhler is not a classic “ufologist” who built reputation through sightings investigation, archival casework, or witness interviews. His ufology relevance is primarily technological and interpretive: UAP audiences increasingly focus on “how would the propulsion work?” and Buhler’s public association with a propellantless-thrust claim provides a device-centered narrative that some enthusiasts treat as a possible bridge between reported UAP performance and conceivable engineering. In that ecosystem, Buhler is cited as a rare example of a NASA-affiliated specialist engaging publicly with an exotic propulsion claim—while he and his collaborators emphasize that their private work is not a NASA project.

In the early phase of his visible technical record, Buhler’s work is characterized by space-environment electrostatics: charge accumulation on materials, discharge behavior, and the practical needs of flight systems and surface operations. This period is defined less by public media and more by lab discipline—instrumentation, repeatability, and risk reduction for spacecraft materials and operations.

During this phase, Buhler becomes strongly associated with active dust mitigation—particularly the long-running development of the Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS), a technique using traveling electric fields and electrostatic/dielectrophoretic forces to lift and transport dust particles off surfaces. The EDS program’s relevance grew as lunar return planning intensified, because regolith dust is abrasive, electrostatically clingy, and operationally hazardous. Public-facing writeups and institutional partnerships increasingly highlighted dust as a mission risk and EDS-like systems as practical countermeasures.

In the later phase, Buhler’s visibility expands sharply beyond NASA electrostatics circles due to the public emergence of Exodus Propulsion Technologies. The central claim is that carefully engineered electrostatic geometries—often described in terms of asymmetric electrostatic pressure or divergent electric fields—can yield a net force on a structure without expelling reaction mass, including in vacuum testing. This is the period in which Buhler becomes a frequent subject of podcasts, articles, and conference discussions that treat “propellantless propulsion” as either a breakthrough or a measurement-artifact problem that demands independent replication.

• Applied spacecraft electrostatics leadership: sustained work on charging/discharge risk, measurement, and mitigation strategies for space systems.
• Electrodynamic Dust Shield development: advancing practical, scalable approaches for dust removal and prevention relevant to lunar surface operations and hardware survivability.
• Public propulsion-claim catalyst: helping define a modern “electrostatic pressure asymmetry” narrative for propellantless propulsion that has become a major debate topic in alternative propulsion communities.

Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS): A flagship applied-physics effort linked to lunar-dust mitigation and space surface operations. EDS systems are framed as active “electric field” methods for dislodging and transporting dust away from sensitive surfaces.

Exodus propellantless propulsion claim: The widely circulated claim that an electrostatic structure can generate measurable thrust in vacuum without propellant, which—if validated—would challenge conventional momentum-exchange assumptions for propulsion hardware.

Buhler’s public-facing technical position—at least as represented in interviews and summaries—is that electrostatic pressure forces scale with electric field strength and that certain asymmetric field/structure arrangements may not perfectly self-cancel, leaving a residual net force. Within NASA-facing work, his “views” are practical: electrostatics is a real operational hazard and a real engineering lever (for dust transport, adhesion control, and discharge risk management). Within the Exodus context, the hypothesis is far more provocative: a field-structured force that behaves like thrust even absent expelled mass.

The controversy is epistemic and experimental, not personal. The core dispute is whether reported thrust signatures could be explained by non-idealities: thermal drift, vibration, buoyancy-related artifacts (in imperfect vacuum), electrostatic coupling into measurement instruments, outgassing, ion/charged-particle effects, or subtle interactions with the environment. Critics argue that extraordinary claims require extraordinary independent replication and transparent methodology. Supporters argue that careful vacuum testing and control iterations have reduced common artifact pathways and that the effect deserves an orbital demonstration to settle the question under true free-fall conditions.

Buhler’s NASA electrostatics work appears in technical talks, program writeups, and space-operations coverage discussing dust hazards and mitigation. The Exodus claim amplified his visibility in alt-propulsion media, where he is often presented as a “NASA electrostatics expert” engaging publicly with a propellantless-thrust idea. This dual presence gives him unusual influence: he is simultaneously a conventional applied-physics figure and a central node in a highly speculative propulsion debate.

Buhler’s legacy is likely to bifurcate. In mainstream aerospace operations, he is associated with concrete, mission-relevant electrostatics work—especially dust mitigation approaches that address real lunar-surface constraints. In the alternative propulsion world, his long-term significance will depend on whether the Exodus-style thrust claim is independently verified or conclusively attributed to artifacts. Either outcome would be consequential: validation would reshape propulsion discussions; falsification would become a case study in how difficult ultra-low-force measurement can be in high-voltage systems.