Beamed Energy Propulsion or, in brief, BEP, is a part of rocket science. However, you dont need to be a rocket scientist to get its idea, it is very simple, and I will explain it to you in the next several paragraphs.
The essence of rocket science is the principle of reactive motion. Cars on the highway are pushing pavement and move against it, swimmer pushes with his limbs (or fins) the water, and swims. Space has nothing to push from, because space is empty. So rocket pushes off its own exhaust formed by burning hydrogen with oxygen. Of course, since the space is a vacuum, everything (fuel, burner, tanks, cryogenics, combustion chamber) must be carried onboard.
Rockets cargo space is very expensive. Why? Because with so many elements onboard: fuel, oxidizer, cryogenics, tanks, lines, you name it, there is a small (and very expensive room) for the payload. If we could only find a way to separate the heavy energy source from the rocket, the gain in efficiency of such rocket will be tremendous.
This can be done if instead of carrying energy source onboard, we will beam that energy from a remote power station. What kind of beam it can be? Laser beam, microwave beam, even x-ray, in all cases energy will be delivered to the rocket with speed of light. When a great number of photons is focused (even loosely) on a solid matter, such matter is evaporated and ionized almost instantaneously, i.e. the release of energy is much higher than one used from burning hydrogen. So, laser-driven vehicle will be still flying on the same rocket principle (pushing away from its exhaust), but exhaust energy and structural lightness will be incomparably superior to hydrogen-burning rockets.
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!
How much beamed energy is more efficient than traditional hydrogen burning? About hundred times! Currently, for reasons disclosed above we are paying $10,000 per pound of payload delivered from ground to low earth orbit only. If space launches will be done with high-power lasers, the price per pound of payload will fall to $100! This is 100-fold gain!
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. - 16492
The essence of rocket science is the principle of reactive motion. Cars on the highway are pushing pavement and move against it, swimmer pushes with his limbs (or fins) the water, and swims. Space has nothing to push from, because space is empty. So rocket pushes off its own exhaust formed by burning hydrogen with oxygen. Of course, since the space is a vacuum, everything (fuel, burner, tanks, cryogenics, combustion chamber) must be carried onboard.
Rockets cargo space is very expensive. Why? Because with so many elements onboard: fuel, oxidizer, cryogenics, tanks, lines, you name it, there is a small (and very expensive room) for the payload. If we could only find a way to separate the heavy energy source from the rocket, the gain in efficiency of such rocket will be tremendous.
This can be done if instead of carrying energy source onboard, we will beam that energy from a remote power station. What kind of beam it can be? Laser beam, microwave beam, even x-ray, in all cases energy will be delivered to the rocket with speed of light. When a great number of photons is focused (even loosely) on a solid matter, such matter is evaporated and ionized almost instantaneously, i.e. the release of energy is much higher than one used from burning hydrogen. So, laser-driven vehicle will be still flying on the same rocket principle (pushing away from its exhaust), but exhaust energy and structural lightness will be incomparably superior to hydrogen-burning rockets.
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!
How much beamed energy is more efficient than traditional hydrogen burning? About hundred times! Currently, for reasons disclosed above we are paying $10,000 per pound of payload delivered from ground to low earth orbit only. If space launches will be done with high-power lasers, the price per pound of payload will fall to $100! This is 100-fold gain!
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. - 16492
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 the future AIBEP He is also associate professor of physics at University of Alabama in Huntsville. To know more about modern state of beamed energy propulsion, please visit official site of AIBEP.
