2009-09-05

Light Propulsion -- Laser-Propelled Spaceships

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LiveScience

Laser-Propelled Spaceships Could Transform Transportation

Beamed Energy Propulsion (BEP) is far more than a dream or idea: It is a powerful enabling technology that will radically transform the future of air and space transportation. It is physics, not imagination.
BEP permits us to build and fly hyper-energetic vehicles driven by remote sources of laser, microwave, and mm-wave power. Such vehicles provide unique performance that would be impossible to achieve with traditional, combustion-based engines. Vehicles driven by BEP will be "greener," safer, smaller, lighter, faster, and far more efficient than any currently existing means of flight transport.
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Artist\'s concept of a spaceship powered by laser light, or Beamed Energy Propulsion (BEP). Credit: Matt Kneght

Artist's concept of a spaceship powered by laser light, or Beamed Energy Propulsion (BEP). Credit: Matt Kneght


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How Light Propulsion Will Work

Photo courtesy Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
An early model of a laser-propelled lightcraft
The basic idea behind light propulsion is the use of ground-based lasers to heat air to the point that it explodes, propelling the spacecraft forward. If it works, light propulsion will be thousands of times lighter and more efficient than chemical rocket engines, and will produce zero pollution.

Photo courtesy Rensselaer
A lightcraft in action. The bright light you see is the air combusting under the rim of the craft.

As the laser pulses, it superheats the air until it combusts. Each time the air combusts, it creates a flash of light, as seen in this photo of a test flight.
A company called Lightcraft Technologies continues to refine the research that began at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
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Laser Pumped Flying Saucer Spacecraft

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RPI Prof Leik Myrabo Lightcraft Research

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Sources:
Laser-Propelled Spaceships Could Transform Transportation | LiveScience
| LiveScience.com
HowStuffWorks "How Light Propulsion Will Work"
Lightcraft Technologies, Inc.
Lightcraft Technology Incorporated
YouTube - Laser Pumped Flying Saucer Spacecraft
YouTube - RPI Prof Leik Myrabo Lightcraft Research
SPACE.com -- Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine
Related:
Beam-powered propulsion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Laser-Powered Lightcraft "At the Cusp of Commercial Reality" | Popular Science
Looking to Lasers, Microwaves and Anti-Matter for Space Travel
Lightcraft Technology Incorporated
Lightcraft Flight Handbook by Leik Myrabo and John Lewis An Apogee Books Publication