This brief note is about Beamed Energy Propulsion (BEP), which is, actually, a rocket science. However, you dont have to be a rocket scientist in order to understand what it is about, it is simple and I will explain it to you in next few paragraphs.
It is all about rockets. What everyone knows about them? On Earth motion is based on pushing from the medium, wherever the motion takes places: cars pushing from pavement by wheels, swimmers pushing from water by limbs, etc. Rockets fly in space and space is mostly a vacuum, it is empty. Rockets move in space using reactive principle, i.e. exhausting hot gases (backward) and pushing away from exhaust in opposite direction (forward). Rockets have to carry all their fuel and burning agent onboard, because there is nothing in space that can be used for burning fuel (like air for burning gasoline in automobiles on earth).
With everything needed for reactive motion stuffed onboard, rockets have very little room for cargo, and this room gets very expensive. Literally, the major loads that rockets are carrying are their engines and fuel. If one could find a way to provide energy for rocket motion from outside, there will be no need to carry all that heavy parts: like oxidizer, cryogenics, tanks, lines, etc., and the gain in rocket efficiency will be enormous!
Such separation will be done, if we could beam energy towards the rocket from a remote power station. The rocket will collect the beam and focus it on a "fuel". High-power beam of photons (laser, microwave, x-ray, whatever) when focused on solid matter (even slightly) evaporate and ionize such matter in an instant. I.e. the energy density in such focus is much tighter, than in the heat generated by burning hydrogen. The beam-riding rocket will remain the rocket, it still will need to push from its own exhaust, but this will be much more energetic exhaust, comparing to hydrogen burners! Also, such rocket will be much lighter.
Beam-driven rocket is equipped with beam-collecting optics (i.e. mirrors) and some relatively lightweight solid fuel. That is it: no more tanks, oxidizer, cryogenics, nozzles, lines, - the rest will be cargo. Such rocket will be a subject of 4P Principle, formulated by the founder of laser propulsion, Arthur Kantrowitz: Payload, Propellants and Photons, Period!
So, what is efficiency gain of beam-driven rocket vs. hydrogen burning rocket? Hydrogen burners cost us $10,000 per pound of a payload delivered to low earth orbit. Scientifically-proven calculations have shown that the price of space delivery per pound drops to minute $100 for laser-driven rockets: a hundredfold, revolutionary change in cost!
Laser propulsion, i.e. use of high-power lasers for satellite launches and in-space transportation is the most developed today branch of BEP. Various types of laser propulsion have been demonstrated in field and by many research groups in lab. Microwave propulsion is another relatively well explored part of BEP. Much less is known about potential of x-rays and particle beams for BEP. Overall, beamed-energy propulsion remains a field of future technology, where a lot of interesting development will happen in the next several decades. Still, it is quite clear, that in the future a great part of space transportation will be driven by high-power photonic beams. - 16928
It is all about rockets. What everyone knows about them? On Earth motion is based on pushing from the medium, wherever the motion takes places: cars pushing from pavement by wheels, swimmers pushing from water by limbs, etc. Rockets fly in space and space is mostly a vacuum, it is empty. Rockets move in space using reactive principle, i.e. exhausting hot gases (backward) and pushing away from exhaust in opposite direction (forward). Rockets have to carry all their fuel and burning agent onboard, because there is nothing in space that can be used for burning fuel (like air for burning gasoline in automobiles on earth).
With everything needed for reactive motion stuffed onboard, rockets have very little room for cargo, and this room gets very expensive. Literally, the major loads that rockets are carrying are their engines and fuel. If one could find a way to provide energy for rocket motion from outside, there will be no need to carry all that heavy parts: like oxidizer, cryogenics, tanks, lines, etc., and the gain in rocket efficiency will be enormous!
Such separation will be done, if we could beam energy towards the rocket from a remote power station. The rocket will collect the beam and focus it on a "fuel". High-power beam of photons (laser, microwave, x-ray, whatever) when focused on solid matter (even slightly) evaporate and ionize such matter in an instant. I.e. the energy density in such focus is much tighter, than in the heat generated by burning hydrogen. The beam-riding rocket will remain the rocket, it still will need to push from its own exhaust, but this will be much more energetic exhaust, comparing to hydrogen burners! Also, such rocket will be much lighter.
Beam-driven rocket is equipped with beam-collecting optics (i.e. mirrors) and some relatively lightweight solid fuel. That is it: no more tanks, oxidizer, cryogenics, nozzles, lines, - the rest will be cargo. Such rocket will be a subject of 4P Principle, formulated by the founder of laser propulsion, Arthur Kantrowitz: Payload, Propellants and Photons, Period!
So, what is efficiency gain of beam-driven rocket vs. hydrogen burning rocket? Hydrogen burners cost us $10,000 per pound of a payload delivered to low earth orbit. Scientifically-proven calculations have shown that the price of space delivery per pound drops to minute $100 for laser-driven rockets: a hundredfold, revolutionary change in cost!
Laser propulsion, i.e. use of high-power lasers for satellite launches and in-space transportation is the most developed today branch of BEP. Various types of laser propulsion have been demonstrated in field and by many research groups in lab. Microwave propulsion is another relatively well explored part of BEP. Much less is known about potential of x-rays and particle beams for BEP. Overall, beamed-energy propulsion remains a field of future technology, where a lot of interesting development will happen in the next several decades. Still, it is quite clear, that in the future a great part of space transportation will be driven by high-power photonic beams. - 16928
About the Author:
Andrew Pakhomov is founder and president of American Institute of Beamed Energy Propulsion, a nonprofit scientific organization serving to development and popularization of this space technology of tomorrow AIBEP He is also associate professor of physics at University of Alabama in Huntsville. To find more about modern state of beamed energy propulsion, please visit official site of AIBEP.
No comments:
Post a Comment